Issued:
2010-02-09
Updated:
2010-02-09

RHBA-2010:0096 - Openswan bug fix update

Synopsis

Openswan bug fix update

Type/Severity

Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated openswan packages that fix an issue with NSS passwords being logged at run time are now available.

Description

Openswan is a free implementation of Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) and Internet Key Exchange (IKE) for Linux. IPsec uses strong cryptography to provide both authentication and encryption services. These services allow you to build secure tunnels through untrusted networks. Everything passing through the untrusted net is encrypted by the IPsec gateway machine and decrypted by the gateway at the other end of the tunnel. The resulting tunnel is a virtual private network, or VPN.

These packages contain the daemons and userland tools for setting up openswan. They support the NETKEY/XFRM IPsec stack in the default Linux kernel. The openswan 2.6.x-series also supports IKEv2 as described in RFC 4309.

This update addresses the following issue:

  • when an NSS database is created with a password (either in FIPS or non-FIPS mode), access to a private key (associated with a certificate or a raw public key) requires authentication. At authentication time, openswan passes the database password to NSS. Previously, when this happened, openswan also logged the password to /var/log/secure. The password could also be seen by running "ipsec barf". With this update, openswan still passes the database password at authentication time but no longer logs it in any fashion. (BZ#557688)

All openswan users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which resolve this issue.

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 This content is not included.http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/docs/DOC-11259

Affected Products

ProductVersionArch
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support5.4x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support5.4ia64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support5.4i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian5ppc
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support5.4ppc
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems5s390x
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support5.4s390x
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

  • openswan-doc-2.6.21-5.el5_4.2.ppc.rpm
  • openswan-2.6.21-5.el5_4.2.ia64.rpm
  • openswan-2.6.21-5.el5_4.2.i386.rpm
  • openswan-2.6.21-5.el5_4.2.src.rpm
  • openswan-2.6.21-5.el5_4.2.x86_64.rpm
  • openswan-doc-2.6.21-5.el5_4.2.i386.rpm
  • openswan-doc-2.6.21-5.el5_4.2.s390x.rpm
  • openswan-doc-2.6.21-5.el5_4.2.x86_64.rpm
  • openswan-2.6.21-5.el5_4.2.ppc.rpm
  • openswan-doc-2.6.21-5.el5_4.2.ia64.rpm
  • openswan-2.6.21-5.el5_4.2.s390x.rpm

Fixes

CVEs

(none)

References

Additional information