Issued:

2009-09-24

Updated:

2009-09-24

RHSA-2009:1463 - Moderate: newt security update

Synopsis

Moderate: newt security update

Type/Severity

Security Advisory Moderate

Topic

Updated newt packages that fix one security issue are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, 4, and 5.

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

Description

Newt is a programming library for color text mode, widget-based user interfaces. Newt can be used to add stacked windows, entry widgets, checkboxes, radio buttons, labels, plain text fields, scrollbars, and so on, to text mode user interfaces.

A heap-based buffer overflow flaw was found in the way newt processes content that is to be displayed in a text dialog box. A local attacker could issue a specially-crafted text dialog box display request (direct or via a custom application), leading to a denial of service (application crash) or, potentially, arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the user running the application using the newt library. (CVE-2009-2905)

Users of newt should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain a backported patch to correct this issue. After installing the updated packages, all applications using the newt library 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

• newt-0.51.6-10.el4_8.1.src.rpm
• newt-0.52.2-12.el5_4.1.i386.rpm
• newt-devel-0.52.2-12.el5_4.1.s390x.rpm
• newt-0.51.6-10.el4_8.1.s390x.rpm
• newt-0.51.6-10.el4_8.1.s390.rpm
• newt-0.52.2-12.el5_4.1.x86_64.rpm
• newt-devel-0.52.2-12.el5_4.1.ppc64.rpm
• newt-0.52.2-12.el5_4.1.src.rpm
• newt-devel-0.51.6-10.el4_8.1.x86_64.rpm
• newt-0.52.2-12.el5_4.1.ppc.rpm
• newt-devel-0.51.6-10.el4_8.1.i386.rpm
• newt-0.51.6-10.el4_8.1.ia64.rpm
• newt-0.51.6-10.el4_8.1.ppc.rpm
• newt-devel-0.51.6-10.el4_8.1.s390.rpm
• newt-0.51.6-10.el4_8.1.ppc64.rpm
• newt-devel-0.52.2-12.el5_4.1.ia64.rpm
• newt-0.51.6-10.el4_8.1.x86_64.rpm
• newt-0.52.2-12.el5_4.1.s390x.rpm
• newt-devel-0.52.2-12.el5_4.1.x86_64.rpm
• newt-devel-0.52.2-12.el5_4.1.s390.rpm
• newt-devel-0.51.6-10.el4_8.1.s390x.rpm
• newt-devel-0.52.2-12.el5_4.1.ppc.rpm
• newt-0.52.2-12.el5_4.1.ppc64.rpm
• newt-0.51.6-10.el4_8.1.i386.rpm
• newt-devel-0.51.6-10.el4_8.1.ia64.rpm
• newt-0.52.2-12.el5_4.1.ia64.rpm
• newt-devel-0.51.6-10.el4_8.1.ppc.rpm
• newt-0.52.2-12.el5_4.1.s390.rpm
• newt-devel-0.52.2-12.el5_4.1.i386.rpm

Fixes

• This content is not included.BZ - 523955

CVEs

• CVE-2009-2905

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.