6.4 - RHSA-2015:2101

Problem Description:

Updated python packages that fix multiple security issues, several bugs, and add various enhancements are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.

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 Client (v. 7) - x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) - x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) - x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) - x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) - aarch64, ppc64, ppc64le, s390x, x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) - aarch64, ppc64, ppc64le, s390x, x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) - x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) - x86_64

3. Description:

Python is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language often compared to Tcl, Perl, Scheme, or Java. Python includes modules, classes, exceptions, very high level dynamic data types and dynamic typing. Python supports interfaces to many system calls and libraries, as well as to various windowing systems (X11, Motif, Tk, Mac and MFC).

It was discovered that the Python xmlrpclib module did not restrict the size of gzip-compressed HTTP responses. A malicious XMLRPC server could cause an XMLRPC client using xmlrpclib to consume an excessive amount of memory. (CVE-2013-1753)

It was discovered that multiple Python standard library modules implementing network protocols (such as httplib or smtplib) failed to restrict the sizes of server responses. A malicious server could cause a client using one of the affected modules to consume an excessive amount of memory. (CVE-2013-1752)

It was discovered that the CGIHTTPServer module incorrectly handled URL encoded paths. A remote attacker could use this flaw to execute scripts outside of the cgi-bin directory, or disclose the source code of the scripts in the cgi-bin directory. (CVE-2014-4650)

An integer overflow flaw was found in the way the buffer() function handled its offset and size arguments. An attacker able to control these arguments could use this flaw to disclose portions of the application memory or cause it to crash. (CVE-2014-7185)

A flaw was found in the way the json module handled negative index arguments passed to certain functions (such as raw_decode()). An attacker able to control the index value passed to one of the affected functions could possibly use this flaw to disclose portions of the application memory. (CVE-2014-4616)

The Python standard library HTTP client modules (such as httplib or urllib) did not perform verification of TLS/SSL certificates when connecting to HTTPS servers. A man-in-the-middle attacker could use this flaw to hijack connections and eavesdrop or modify transferred data. (CVE-2014-9365)

Note: The Python standard library was updated to make it possible to enable certificate verification by default. However, for backwards compatibility, verification remains disabled by default. Future updates may change this default. Refer to the Knowledgebase article 2039753 linked to in the References section for further details about this change. (BZ#1219108)

This update also fixes the following bugs:

* Subprocesses used with the Eventlet library or regular threads previously tried to close epoll file descriptors twice, which led to an "Invalid argument" error. Subprocesses have been fixed to close the file descriptors only once. (BZ#1103452)

* When importing the readline module from a Python script, Python no longer produces erroneous random characters on stdout. (BZ#1189301)

* The cProfile utility has been fixed to print all values that the "-s" option supports when this option is used without a correct value. (BZ#1237107)

* The load_cert_chain() function now accepts "None" as a keyfile argument. (BZ#1250611)

In addition, this update adds the following enhancements:

* Security enhancements as described in PEP 466 have been backported to the Python standard library, for example, new features of the ssl module: Server Name Indication (SNI) support, support for new TLSv1.x protocols, new hash algorithms in the hashlib module, and many more. (BZ#1111461)

* Support for the ssl.PROTOCOL_TLSv1_2 protocol has been added to the ssl library. (BZ#1192015)

* The ssl.SSLSocket.version() method is now available to access information about the version of the SSL protocol used in a connection. (BZ#1259421)

All python 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.

For details on how to apply this update, refer to:

https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258

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

1046170 - CVE-2013-1753 python: XMLRPC library unrestricted decompression of HTTP responses using gzip enconding 1046174 - CVE-2013-1752 python: multiple unbound readline() DoS flaws in python stdlib 1058482 - tmpwatch removes python multiprocessing sockets 1112285 - CVE-2014-4616 python: missing boundary check in JSON module 1113527 - CVE-2014-4650 python: CGIHTTPServer module does not properly handle URL-encoded path separators in URLs 1146026 - CVE-2014-7185 python: buffer() integer overflow leading to out of bounds read 1173041 - CVE-2014-9365 python: failure to validate certificates in the HTTP client with TLS (PEP 476) 1177613 - setup.py bdist_rpm NameError: global name 'get_python_version' is not defined 1181624 - multiprocessing BaseManager serve_client() does not check EINTR on recv 1237107 - cProfile main() traceback if options syntax is invalid 1250611 - SSLContext.load_cert_chain() keyfile argument can't be set to None 1259421 - Backport SSLSocket.version() to python 2.7.5