7.5 - RHSA-2009:0955

Problem Description:

An updated nfs-utils package that fixes a security issue and multiple bugs is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.

This update has been rated as having moderate security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.

2. Relevant releases/architectures:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS version 4 - i386, ia64, ppc, s390, s390x, x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop version 4 - i386, x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 4 - i386, ia64, x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 4 - i386, ia64, x86_64

3. Description:

The nfs-utils package provides a daemon for the kernel NFS server and related tools, which provides a much higher level of performance than the traditional Linux NFS server used by most users.

A flaw was found in the nfs-utils package provided by RHBA-2008:0742. The nfs-utils package was missing TCP wrappers support, which could result in an administrator believing they had access restrictions enabled when they did not. (CVE-2008-1376)

This update also includes the following bug fixes:

* the "nfsstat" command now displays correct statistics. In previous versions, performing more than 2^31 RPC calls could cause the "nfsstat" command to incorrectly display the number of calls as "negative". This was because "nfsstat" printed statistics from /proc/net/rpc/* files as signed integers; with this version of nfs-utils, "nfsstat" now reads and prints these statistics as unsigned integers. (BZ#404831)

* imapd upcalls now support zero-length reads and perform extra bounds checking in gssd and svcgssd. This fixes a bug in previous versions that could cause the rpc.imapd daemon to hang when communicating with the kernel, which would halt any ID translation services. (BZ#448710)

* tcp_wrappers supported in nfs-utils now allows proper application of hosts access rules defined in /etc/hosts.allow and /etc/hosts.deny. (BZ#494585)

* the nfs init script did not check whether SECURE_NFS was set to "yes" before starting, stopping, or querying rpc.svcgssd. On systems where SECURE_NFS was not set to "yes", the nfs init script could not start the rpc.svcgssd daemon at the "service nfs start" command because the rpcsvcssd init script would check the status of SECURE_NFS before starting the daemon. However, at the "service nfs stop" or "service nfs restart" commands, nfs init script would attempt to stop rpc.svcgssd and then report a failure because the daemon was not running in the first place. These error messages may have misled end-users into believing that there was a genuine problem with their NFS configuration. This version of nfs-utils contains a fix backported from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. nfs-utils now checks the status of SECURE_NFS before the nfs init script attempts to start, query or stop rpc.svcgssd and therefore, the irrelevant error messages seen previously will not appear. (BZ#470423)

* the nfs init script is now fully compliant with Linux Standard Base Core specifications. This update fixes a bug that prevented "/etc/init.d/nfs start" from exiting properly if NFS was already running. (BZ#474570)

* /var/lib/nfs/statd/sm is now created with the proper user and group whenever rpc.statd is called. In previous versions, some thread stack conditions could incorrectly prevent rpc.statd from creating the /var/lib/nfs/statd/sm file, which could cause "service nfslock start" to fail. (BZ#479376)

All users of nfs-utils should upgrade to this updated package, which resolves these issues.

4. Solution:

Before applying this update, make sure that all previously-released errata relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via Red Hat Network. Details on how to use the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/docs/DOC-11259

5. Bugs fixed (http://bugzilla.redhat.com/):

404831 - "nfsstat -s" shows negative value 440114 - CVE-2008-1376 nfs-utils: missing tcp_wrappers support 461043 - lockd not using settings in sysconfig/nfs 474570 - Incorrect exit codes from nfs init script 479376 - statd fails to create SM_DIR 494585 - libwrap - Nor ip, nor hostname work,, only when used ALL expression in hosts.deny access is denied