4.3 - RHSA-2013:0131

Problem Description:

Updated gnome-vfs2 packages that fix one security issue and several bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having low security impact. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available from the CVE link in the References section.

2. Relevant releases/architectures:

RHEL Desktop Workstation (v. 5 client) - i386, x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server) - i386, ia64, ppc, s390x, x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 5 client) - i386, x86_64

3. Description:

The gnome-vfs2 packages provide the GNOME Virtual File System, which is the foundation of the Nautilus file manager. neon is an HTTP and WebDAV client library embedded in the gnome-vfs2 packages.

A denial of service flaw was found in the neon Extensible Markup Language (XML) parser. Visiting a malicious DAV server with an application using gnome-vfs2 (such as Nautilus) could possibly cause the application to consume an excessive amount of CPU and memory. (CVE-2009-2473)

This update also fixes the following bugs:

* When extracted from the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), gnome-vfs2 returned escaped file paths. If a path, as stored in the URI, contained non-ASCII characters or ASCII characters which are parsed as something other than a file path (for example, spaces), the escaped path was inaccurate. Consequently, files with the described type of URI could not be processed. With this update, gnome-vfs2 properly unescapes paths that are required for a system call. As a result, these paths are parsed properly. (BZ#580855)

* In certain cases, the trash info file was populated by foreign entries, pointing to live data. Emptying the trash caused an accidental deletion of valuable data. With this update, a workaround has been applied in order to prevent the deletion. As a result, the accidental data loss is prevented, however further information is still gathered to fully fix this problem. (BZ#586015)

* Due to a wrong test checking for a destination file system, the Nautilus file manager failed to delete a symbolic link to a folder which was residing in another file system. With this update, a special test has been added. As a result, a symbolic link pointing to another file system can be trashed or deleted properly. (BZ#621394)

* Prior to this update, when directories without a read permission were marked for copy, the Nautilus file manager skipped these unreadable directories without notification. With this update, Nautilus displays an error message and properly informs the user about the aforementioned problem. (BZ#772307)

* Previously, gnome-vfs2 used the stat() function calls for every file on the MultiVersion File System (MVFS), used for example by IBM Rational ClearCase. This behavior significantly slowed down file operations. With this update, the unnecessary stat() operations have been limited. As a result, gnome-vfs2 user interfaces, such as Nautilus, are more responsive. (BZ#822817)

All gnome-vfs2 users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct 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 the Red Hat Network. Details on how to use the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/articles/11258

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

518215 - CVE-2009-2473 neon: billion laughs DoS attack 580855 - Cannot delete folder contents if the name of the folder contains spaces 621394 - can't delete symlink to other filesystem 822817 - Fix Gnome VFS components to not stat every file on an ClearCase mvfs filesystem 848822 - Problem while loading OAFIID: GNOME_Panel_TrashApplet