Issued:
2012-10-01
Updated:
2012-10-01

RHBA-2012:1317 - strace bug fix and enhancement update

Synopsis

strace bug fix and enhancement update

Type/Severity

Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated strace packages that fix a bug are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Description

The strace packages provide an utility to intercept and record the system calls called and received by a running process. The strace utility can print a record of each system call, its arguments, and its return value. The strace utility is useful for diagnosing, debugging, and instructional purposes.

This update fixes the following bug:

  • Previously, the strace utility used magic breakpoints in the process startup code to detect and control process startup. Consequently, under certain circumstances, the %ebx register could be corrupted around the clone syscall within the libc_fork() function, which could cause an application to terminate unexpectedly with a segmentation fault while under strace control. This update changes strace to use the TRACE{FORK,VFORK,CLONE} ptrace capabilities which provide a cleaner, less error-prone interface to monitor and control process startup when tracing, thus preventing this bug. (BZ#849052)

All users of strace are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which fix this bug.

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.https://access.redhat.com/kb/docs/DOC-11259

Affected Products

ProductVersionArch
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support6.3x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support6.3i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Scientific Computing6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian6ppc64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support6.3ppc64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems6s390x
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support6.3s390x
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation6i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server6i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI6i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Update Support from RHUI6.3x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Update Support from RHUI6.3i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support6i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension6i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension (for IBM z Systems)6s390x
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support (for IBM z Systems)6s390x
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop6i386

Updated Packages

  • strace-4.5.19-1.11.el6_3.2.src.rpm
  • strace-debuginfo-4.5.19-1.11.el6_3.2.x86_64.rpm
  • strace-4.5.19-1.11.el6_3.2.s390x.rpm
  • strace-4.5.19-1.11.el6_3.2.x86_64.rpm
  • strace-4.5.19-1.11.el6_3.2.i686.rpm
  • strace-debuginfo-4.5.19-1.11.el6_3.2.i686.rpm
  • strace-debuginfo-4.5.19-1.11.el6_3.2.ppc64.rpm
  • strace64-4.5.19-1.11.el6_3.2.ppc64.rpm
  • strace-4.5.19-1.11.el6_3.2.ppc64.rpm
  • strace-debuginfo-4.5.19-1.11.el6_3.2.s390x.rpm

Fixes

(none)

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)

Additional information