6.9 - RHSA-2011:1526

Problem Description:

Updated glibc packages that fix two security issues, several bugs, and add various enhancements are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having low security impact. Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base scores, which give detailed severity ratings, are available for each vulnerability from the CVE links in the References section.

2. Relevant releases/architectures:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) - i386, x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Optional (v. 6) - i386, x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node (v. 6) - x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) - x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) - i386, ppc64, s390x, x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 6) - i386, ppc64, s390x, x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) - i386, x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 6) - i386, x86_64

3. Description:

The glibc packages contain the standard C libraries used by multiple programs on the system. These packages contain the standard C and the standard math libraries. Without these two libraries, a Linux system cannot function properly.

A flaw was found in the way the ldd utility identified dynamically linked libraries. If an attacker could trick a user into running ldd on a malicious binary, it could result in arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the user running ldd. (CVE-2009-5064)

It was found that the glibc addmntent() function, used by various mount helper utilities, did not handle certain errors correctly when updating the mtab (mounted file systems table) file. If such utilities had the setuid bit set, a local attacker could use this flaw to corrupt the mtab file. (CVE-2011-1089)

Red Hat would like to thank Dan Rosenberg for reporting the CVE-2011-1089 issue.

This update also fixes several bugs and adds various enhancements. Documentation for these bug fixes and enhancements will be available shortly from the Technical Notes document, linked to in the References section.

Users are advised to upgrade to these updated glibc packages, which contain backported patches to resolve these issues and add these enhancements.

4. Solution:

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

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

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

676467 - glibc-debuginfo.i686 and glibc-debuginfo.x86_64 conflict 688980 - CVE-2011-1089 glibc: Suid mount helpers fail to anticipate RLIMIT_FSIZE 692393 - CVE-2009-5064 glibc: ldd unexpected code execution issue 694386 - POWER4 strncmp crashes reading past zero byte 700507 - nscd start produce USER_AVC 706903 - getpwuid unreliable when using NIS, missing flag: -DUSE_BINDINGDIR=1 711987 - [RHEL-6] statvfs tries to stat unrelated mountpoints 712248 - getconf returns incorrect FILESIZEBITS for Lustre filesystem 713134 - CVE-2009-5064 glibc: ldd unexpected code execution issue [rhel-6.2] 714823 - getaddrinfo returns PTR name in ai_canonname when using DNS 729036 - Debuginfo package issues in glibc 730379 - libresolv is not compiled with the stack protector enabled 731042 - pthread_create dumps core when it fails to set real time policy 736346 - make initgroups (setgroups) thread aware 737778 - setlocale() fails if LC_CTYPE is set to Turkish locale 738665 - strange pthread/fork deadlock 738763 - need to add IP_MULTICAST_ALL option to glibc headers 739184 - Statically-linked binaries that call gethostbyname crash when executed.