Issued:
2009-09-21
Updated:
2009-09-23

RHSA-2009:1454 - Important: tomcat5 security update

Synopsis

Important: tomcat5 security update

Type/Severity

Security Advisory Important

Topic

Updated tomcat5 packages that fix several security issues are now available for JBoss Enterprise Web Server 1.0.0 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and 5.

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

[Updated 23 September 2009] This erratum has been updated to include replacement packages for JBoss Enterprise Web Server 1.0.0 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4. The original packages did not contain a fix for the low security impact issue CVE-2009-0783. The packages for JBoss Enterprise Web Server 1.0.0 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 are unchanged as they included the fix for CVE-2009-0783.

Description

Apache Tomcat is a servlet container for the Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages (JSP) technologies.

It was discovered that Tomcat does not properly handle a certain character and character sequence in cookie values. A remote attacker could use this flaw to obtain sensitive information, such as session IDs, and then use this information for session hijacking attacks. (CVE-2007-5333)

Note: The fix for the CVE-2007-5333 flaw changes the default cookie processing behavior: With this update, version 0 cookies that contain values that must be quoted to be valid are automatically changed to version 1 cookies. To reactivate the previous, but insecure behavior, add the following entry to the "/etc/tomcat5/catalina.properties" file:

org.apache.tomcat.util.http.ServerCookie.VERSION_SWITCH=false

It was discovered that request dispatchers did not properly normalize user requests that have trailing query strings, allowing remote attackers to send specially-crafted requests that would cause an information leak. (CVE-2008-5515)

A flaw was found in the way the Tomcat AJP (Apache JServ Protocol) connector processes AJP connections. An attacker could use this flaw to send specially-crafted requests that would cause a temporary denial of service. (CVE-2009-0033)

It was discovered that the error checking methods of certain authentication classes did not have sufficient error checking, allowing remote attackers to enumerate (via brute force methods) usernames registered with applications running on Tomcat when FORM-based authentication was used. (CVE-2009-0580)

It was discovered that web applications containing their own XML parsers could replace the XML parser Tomcat uses to parse configuration files. A malicious web application running on a Tomcat instance could read or, potentially, modify the configuration and XML-based data of other web applications deployed on the same Tomcat instance. (CVE-2009-0783)

Users of Tomcat should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to resolve these issues. Tomcat must be restarted for this 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

ProductVersionArch
JBoss Enterprise Web Server1x86_64
JBoss Enterprise Web Server1i386

Updated Packages

  • tomcat5-jsp-2.0-api-javadoc-5.5.23-0jpp.9.6.ep5.el5.noarch.rpm
  • tomcat5-jsp-2.0-api-5.5.23-0jpp.9.6.ep5.el5.noarch.rpm
  • tomcat5-servlet-2.4-api-javadoc-5.5.23-0jpp.9.6.ep5.el5.noarch.rpm
  • tomcat5-server-lib-5.5.23-0jpp.9.6.ep5.el5.noarch.rpm
  • tomcat5-servlet-2.4-api-5.5.23-0jpp.9.6.ep5.el5.noarch.rpm
  • tomcat5-5.5.23-0jpp.9.6.ep5.el5.src.rpm
  • tomcat5-jasper-javadoc-5.5.23-0jpp.9.6.ep5.el5.noarch.rpm
  • tomcat5-5.5.23-0jpp.9.6.ep5.el5.noarch.rpm
  • tomcat5-common-lib-5.5.23-0jpp.9.6.ep5.el5.noarch.rpm
  • tomcat5-admin-webapps-5.5.23-0jpp.9.6.ep5.el5.noarch.rpm
  • tomcat5-webapps-5.5.23-0jpp.9.6.ep5.el5.noarch.rpm
  • tomcat5-jasper-5.5.23-0jpp.9.6.ep5.el5.noarch.rpm

Fixes

CVEs

References

Additional information