Issued:

2010-03-01

Updated:

2010-03-01

RHSA-2010:0124 - Important: systemtap security update

Synopsis

Important: systemtap security update

Type/Severity

Security Advisory Important

Topic

Updated systemtap packages that fix two security issues are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

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

Description

SystemTap is an instrumentation system for systems running the Linux kernel, version 2.6. Developers can write scripts to collect data on the operation of the system.

A flaw was found in the SystemTap compile server, stap-server, an optional component of SystemTap. This server did not adequately sanitize input provided by the stap-client program, which may allow a remote user to execute arbitrary shell code with the privileges of the compile server process, which could possibly be running as the root user. (CVE-2009-4273)

Note: stap-server is not run by default. It must be started by a user or administrator.

A buffer overflow flaw was found in SystemTap's tapset __get_argv() function. If a privileged user ran a SystemTap script that called this function, a local, unprivileged user could, while that script is still running, trigger this flaw and cause memory corruption by running a command with a large argument list, which may lead to a system crash or, potentially, arbitrary code execution with root privileges. (CVE-2010-0411)

Note: SystemTap scripts that call __get_argv(), being a privileged function, can only be executed by the root user or users in the stapdev group. As well, if such a script was compiled and installed by root, users in the stapusr group would also be able to execute it.

SystemTap users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues.

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-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.s390x.rpm
• systemtap-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.i386.rpm
• systemtap-server-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.s390x.rpm
• systemtap-server-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.ia64.rpm
• systemtap-client-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.ppc64.rpm
• systemtap-sdt-devel-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.x86_64.rpm
• systemtap-testsuite-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.ppc64.rpm
• systemtap-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.ppc64.rpm
• systemtap-sdt-devel-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.s390x.rpm
• systemtap-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.ia64.rpm
• systemtap-sdt-devel-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.ia64.rpm
• systemtap-initscript-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.ppc64.rpm
• systemtap-initscript-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.ia64.rpm
• systemtap-server-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.x86_64.rpm
• systemtap-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.src.rpm
• systemtap-server-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.ppc64.rpm
• systemtap-runtime-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.i386.rpm
• systemtap-initscript-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.s390x.rpm
• systemtap-runtime-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.ppc64.rpm
• systemtap-sdt-devel-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.i386.rpm
• systemtap-runtime-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.ia64.rpm
• systemtap-client-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.i386.rpm
• systemtap-runtime-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.s390x.rpm
• systemtap-runtime-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.x86_64.rpm
• systemtap-client-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.s390x.rpm
• systemtap-testsuite-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.ia64.rpm
• systemtap-client-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.x86_64.rpm
• systemtap-initscript-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.x86_64.rpm
• systemtap-sdt-devel-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.ppc64.rpm
• systemtap-server-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.i386.rpm
• systemtap-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.x86_64.rpm
• systemtap-testsuite-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.i386.rpm
• systemtap-initscript-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.i386.rpm
• systemtap-testsuite-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.s390x.rpm
• systemtap-sdt-devel-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.s390.rpm
• systemtap-client-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.ia64.rpm
• systemtap-testsuite-0.9.7-5.el5_4.3.x86_64.rpm

Fixes

• This content is not included.BZ - 550172
• This content is not included.BZ - 559719

CVEs

• CVE-2009-4273
• CVE-2010-0411

References

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

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.