7.2 - RHSA-2006:0016

Problem Description:

An updated initscripts package that fixes a privilege escalation issue and several bugs is 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 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:

The initscripts package contains the basic system scripts used to boot your Red Hat system, change runlevels, and shut the system down cleanly. Initscripts also contains the scripts that activate and deactivate most network interfaces.

A bug was found in the way initscripts handled various environment variables when the /sbin/service command is run. It is possible for a local user with permissions to execute /sbin/service via sudo to execute arbitrary commands as the 'root' user. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) assigned the name CVE-2005-3629 to this issue.

The following issues have also been fixed in this update:

* extraneous characters were logged on bootup

* fsck was attempted on file systems marked with _netdev in rc.sysinit
before they were available

* the dynamically-linked /sbin/multipath was called instead of the correct
/sbin/multiplath.static

Additionally, this update includes support for partitioned multipath devices and a technology preview of static IP over InifiniBand.

All users of initscripts should upgrade to this updated package, which resolves these issues.

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/):

108827 - RHEL4: Infiniband support 168321 - rc.sysinit call dynamicly linked multipath rather than multipath.static 171912 - Bogus messages in system log (/var/log/messages) 172804 - Automount of the emcpower device fails if fsck is enabled for the device in /etc/fstab. 174849 - CVE-2005-3629 root shell can be gained from service if ran through sudo