Issued:
2009-04-15
Updated:
2009-09-02

RHBA-2009:0423 - rsh bug fix update

Synopsis

rsh bug fix update

Type/Severity

Bug Fix Advisory (none)

Topic

Updated rsh packages that resolve several issues are now available.

Description

The rsh-server package contains programs which allow users to run commands on remote machines, log in to other machines, copy files between machines (rsh, rlogin and rcp), and provides an alternate method of executing remote commands (rexec). All of these programs are run by xinetd and can be configured through the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) system, and through configuration files in the /etc/xinetd.d/ directory.

These updated rsh packages provide fixes for the following bugs:

  • rsh did not set any of the environment variables listed in the /etc/security/pam_env.conf configuration file, and thus rsh users did not have access to that environment. With this update, rsh correctly reads and sets the environment variables listed in /etc/security/pam_env.conf, thus resolving the issue.

  • the rexec(1) man page stated that the maximum length of the username on the remote system was restricted to 16 characters. Internally, however, rexec limited the maximum username length to 14 characters. rexec's maximum username length has been increased to 16 characters, which corresponds to the value given in the manual page, and which resolves the issue.

  • when copying data to a full NFS directory, rcp failed silently and did not report an error, which led to silent data loss. With this update, rcp does report an error under this condition.

All users of rsh are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which resolve these issues.

Solution

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

This update is available via Red Hat Network. Details on how to use the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at This content is not included.http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/docs/DOC-11259

Affected Products

ProductVersionArch
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian5ppc
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems5s390x
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation5x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation5i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server5x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server5ia64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server5i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI5x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI5i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop5x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop5i386

Updated Packages

  • rsh-0.17-40.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • rsh-0.17-40.el5.ppc.rpm
  • rsh-server-0.17-40.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • rsh-server-0.17-40.el5.s390x.rpm
  • rsh-server-0.17-40.el5.ppc.rpm
  • rsh-0.17-40.el5.src.rpm
  • rsh-server-0.17-40.el5.i386.rpm
  • rsh-0.17-40.el5.i386.rpm
  • rsh-server-0.17-40.el5.ia64.rpm
  • rsh-0.17-40.el5.s390x.rpm
  • rsh-0.17-40.el5.ia64.rpm

Fixes

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)

Additional information