Issued:

2009-03-26

Updated:

2009-03-26

RHSA-2009:0373 - Moderate: systemtap security update

Synopsis

Moderate: systemtap security update

Type/Severity

Security Advisory Moderate

Topic

Updated systemtap packages that fix a security issue are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and 5.

This update has been rated as having moderate security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.

Description

SystemTap is an instrumentation infrastructure for systems running version 2.6 of the Linux kernel. SystemTap scripts can collect system operations data, greatly simplifying information gathering. Collected data can then assist in performance measuring, functional testing, and performance and function problem diagnosis.

A race condition was discovered in SystemTap that could allow users in the stapusr group to elevate privileges to that of members of the stapdev group (and hence root), bypassing directory confinement restrictions and allowing them to insert arbitrary SystemTap kernel modules. (CVE-2009-0784)

Note: This issue was only exploitable if another SystemTap kernel module was placed in the "systemtap/" module directory for the currently running kernel.

Red Hat would like to thank Erik Sjolund for reporting this issue.

SystemTap users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain a backported patch to correct this issue.

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

Updated Packages

• systemtap-server-0.7.2-3.el5_3.ia64.rpm
• systemtap-0.6.2-2.el4_7.x86_64.rpm
• systemtap-testsuite-0.6.2-2.el4_7.ppc64.rpm
• systemtap-0.7.2-3.el5_3.s390x.rpm
• systemtap-server-0.7.2-3.el5_3.ppc64.rpm
• systemtap-client-0.7.2-3.el5_3.i386.rpm
• systemtap-0.7.2-3.el5_3.i386.rpm
• systemtap-server-0.7.2-3.el5_3.x86_64.rpm
• systemtap-runtime-0.7.2-3.el5_3.x86_64.rpm
• systemtap-testsuite-0.7.2-3.el5_3.ppc64.rpm
• systemtap-testsuite-0.7.2-3.el5_3.s390x.rpm
• systemtap-0.7.2-3.el5_3.x86_64.rpm
• systemtap-0.6.2-2.el4_7.src.rpm
• systemtap-0.6.2-2.el4_7.ppc64.rpm
• systemtap-testsuite-0.6.2-2.el4_7.i386.rpm
• systemtap-testsuite-0.6.2-2.el4_7.ia64.rpm
• systemtap-0.6.2-2.el4_7.ia64.rpm
• systemtap-server-0.7.2-3.el5_3.s390x.rpm
• systemtap-runtime-0.7.2-3.el5_3.i386.rpm
• systemtap-testsuite-0.7.2-3.el5_3.x86_64.rpm
• systemtap-runtime-0.7.2-3.el5_3.ppc64.rpm
• systemtap-server-0.7.2-3.el5_3.i386.rpm
• systemtap-client-0.7.2-3.el5_3.x86_64.rpm
• systemtap-runtime-0.6.2-2.el4_7.ia64.rpm
• systemtap-0.7.2-3.el5_3.ia64.rpm
• systemtap-runtime-0.6.2-2.el4_7.x86_64.rpm
• systemtap-testsuite-0.6.2-2.el4_7.x86_64.rpm
• systemtap-testsuite-0.7.2-3.el5_3.i386.rpm
• systemtap-0.6.2-2.el4_7.i386.rpm
• systemtap-runtime-0.7.2-3.el5_3.s390x.rpm
• systemtap-testsuite-0.7.2-3.el5_3.ia64.rpm
• systemtap-client-0.7.2-3.el5_3.s390x.rpm
• systemtap-runtime-0.7.2-3.el5_3.ia64.rpm
• systemtap-0.7.2-3.el5_3.ppc64.rpm
• systemtap-client-0.7.2-3.el5_3.ppc64.rpm
• systemtap-0.7.2-3.el5_3.src.rpm
• systemtap-runtime-0.6.2-2.el4_7.i386.rpm
• systemtap-client-0.7.2-3.el5_3.ia64.rpm
• systemtap-runtime-0.6.2-2.el4_7.ppc64.rpm

Fixes

• This content is not included.BZ - 489808

CVEs

• CVE-2009-0784

References

• http://www.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#moderate

Additional information

• The Red Hat security contact is This content is not included.secalert@redhat.com. More contact details at https://access.redhat.com/security/team/contact/.
• Offline Security Data data is available for integration with other systems. See Offline Security Data API to get started.