6.8 - RHSA-2014:1391

Problem Description:

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

Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having Moderate 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 provide the standard C libraries (libc), POSIX thread libraries (libpthread), standard math libraries (libm), and the Name Server Caching Daemon (nscd) used by multiple programs on the system. Without these libraries, the Linux system cannot function correctly.

An out-of-bounds write flaw was found in the way the glibc's readdir_r() function handled file system entries longer than the NAME_MAX character constant. A remote attacker could provide a specially crafted NTFS or CIFS file system that, when processed by an application using readdir_r(), would cause that application to crash or, potentially, allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running the application. (CVE-2013-4237)

It was found that getaddrinfo() did not limit the amount of stack memory used during name resolution. An attacker able to make an application resolve an attacker-controlled hostname or IP address could possibly cause the application to exhaust all stack memory and crash. (CVE-2013-4458)

These updated glibc packages also include several bug fixes and two enhancements. Space precludes documenting all of these changes in this advisory. Users are directed to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.6 Technical Notes, linked to in the References section, for information on the most significant of these changes.

All glibc users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct 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/articles/11258

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

905941 - Fix memory fencing error in unwind-forcedunwind.c 981942 - ping6 with idn causes crash 995839 - CVE-2013-4237 glibc: Buffer overwrite when using readdir_r on file systems returning file names longer than NAME_MAX characters 1022280 - CVE-2013-4458 glibc: Stack (frame) overflow in getaddrinfo() when called with AF_INET6 1032628 - Symbol lookup in elf/dl-lookup.c results in returning wrong values 1043557 - nscd segfaults when running sudo with netgroup caching enabled. 1044628 - getaddrinfo return EAI_NONAME instead of EAI_AGAIN in case the DNS query times out 1087833 - nscd-2.12-1.132.el6 enters busy loop on long netgroup entry via nss_ldap of nslcd 1099025 - ftime() possibly broken on ppc