7.5 - RHSA-2005:433

Problem Description:

Updated postgresql packages that fix several security vulnerabilities and risks of data loss are now available.

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 3 - i386, ia64, ppc, s390, s390x, x86_64 Red Hat Desktop version 3 - i386, x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 3 - i386, ia64, x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 3 - i386, ia64, x86_64 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. Problem description:

PostgreSQL is an advanced Object-Relational database management system (DBMS) that supports almost all SQL constructs (including transactions, subselects and user-defined types and functions).

The PostgreSQL community discovered two distinct errors in initial system catalog entries that could allow authorized database users to crash the database and possibly escalate their privileges. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the names CAN-2005-1409 and CAN-2005-1410 to these issues.

Although installing this update will protect new (freshly initdb'd) database installations from these errors, administrators MUST TAKE MANUAL ACTION to repair the errors in pre-existing databases. The appropriate procedures are explained at http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.0/static/release-7-4-8.html for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 users, or http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.0/static/release-7-3-10.html for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 users.

This update corrects several problems that might occur while trying to upgrade a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 installation (containing rh-postgresql packages) to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (containing postgresql packages). These updated packages correctly supersede the rh-postgresql packages.

The original release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 failed to initialize the database correctly if started for the first time with SELinux in enforcement mode. This update corrects that problem.

If you already have a nonfunctional database in place, shut down the postgresql service if running, install this update, then do "sudo rm -rf /var/lib/pgsql/data" before restarting the postgresql service.

This update also solves the problem that the PostgreSQL server might fail to restart after a system reboot, due to a stale lockfile.

This update also corrects a problem with wrong error messages in libpq, the postgresql client library. The library would formerly report kernel error messages incorrectly when the locale setting was not C.

This update also includes fixes for several other errors, including two race conditions that could result in apparent data inconsistency or actual data loss.

All users of PostgreSQL are advised to upgrade to these updated packages and to apply the recommended manual corrections to existing databases.

4. Solution:

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

This update is available via Red Hat Network. To use Red Hat Network, launch the Red Hat Update Agent with the following command:

up2date

This will start an interactive process that will result in the appropriate RPMs being upgraded on your system.

5. Bug IDs fixed (http://bugzilla.redhat.com/):

149237 - selinux <