Issued:

2009-06-16

Updated:

2009-06-16

RHSA-2009:1108 - Moderate: httpd security update

Synopsis

Moderate: httpd security update

Type/Severity

Security Advisory Moderate

Topic

Updated httpd packages that fix multiple security issues are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.

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

Description

The Apache HTTP Server is a popular Web server. The httpd package shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 contains an embedded copy of the Apache Portable Runtime (APR) utility library, a free library of C data structures and routines, which includes interfaces to support XML parsing, LDAP connections, database interfaces, URI parsing, and more.

An off-by-one overflow flaw was found in the way apr-util processed a variable list of arguments. An attacker could provide a specially-crafted string as input for the formatted output conversion routine, which could, on big-endian platforms, potentially lead to the disclosure of sensitive information or a denial of service (application crash). (CVE-2009-1956)

Note: The CVE-2009-1956 flaw only affects big-endian platforms, such as the IBM S/390 and PowerPC. It does not affect users using the httpd package on little-endian platforms, due to their different organization of byte ordering used to represent particular data.

A denial of service flaw was found in the apr-util Extensible Markup Language (XML) parser. A remote attacker could create a specially-crafted XML document that would cause excessive memory consumption when processed by the XML decoding engine. (CVE-2009-1955)

A heap-based underwrite flaw was found in the way apr-util created compiled forms of particular search patterns. An attacker could formulate a specially-crafted search keyword, that would overwrite arbitrary heap memory locations when processed by the pattern preparation engine. (CVE-2009-0023)

All httpd users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues. After installing the updated packages, the httpd daemon must be restarted for the update to take effect.

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

• httpd-2.0.46-73.ent.ppc.rpm
• mod_ssl-2.0.46-73.ent.ppc.rpm
• httpd-devel-2.0.46-73.ent.ppc.rpm

Fixes

• This content is not included.BZ - 503928
• This content is not included.BZ - 504390
• This content is not included.BZ - 504555

CVEs

• CVE-2009-0023
• CVE-2009-1956
• CVE-2009-1955

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.