Issued:
2010-10-25
Updated:
2010-10-25

RHSA-2010:0793 - Important: glibc security update

Synopsis

Important: glibc security update

Type/Severity

Security Advisory Important

Topic

Updated glibc packages that fix one security issue are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having important security impact. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available from the CVE link in the References section.

Description

The glibc packages contain the standard C libraries used by multiple programs on the system. These packages contain the standard C and the standard math libraries. Without these two libraries, a Linux system cannot function properly.

It was discovered that the glibc dynamic linker/loader did not perform sufficient safety checks when loading dynamic shared objects (DSOs) to provide callbacks for its auditing API during the execution of privileged programs. A local attacker could use this flaw to escalate their privileges via a carefully-chosen system DSO library containing unsafe constructors. (CVE-2010-3856)

Red Hat would like to thank Ben Hawkes and Tavis Ormandy for reporting this issue.

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

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure all previously-released errata relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via the 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
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian5ppc
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems5s390x
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation5x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation5i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server5x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server5ia64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server5i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI5x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI5i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop5x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop5i386

Updated Packages

  • nscd-2.5-49.el5_5.7.i386.rpm
  • glibc-common-2.5-49.el5_5.7.ppc.rpm
  • nscd-2.5-49.el5_5.7.x86_64.rpm
  • glibc-2.5-49.el5_5.7.x86_64.rpm
  • glibc-common-2.5-49.el5_5.7.x86_64.rpm
  • glibc-utils-2.5-49.el5_5.7.x86_64.rpm
  • glibc-2.5-49.el5_5.7.s390x.rpm
  • glibc-common-2.5-49.el5_5.7.s390x.rpm
  • nscd-2.5-49.el5_5.7.ia64.rpm
  • glibc-devel-2.5-49.el5_5.7.x86_64.rpm
  • glibc-2.5-49.el5_5.7.ppc.rpm
  • glibc-devel-2.5-49.el5_5.7.i386.rpm
  • glibc-utils-2.5-49.el5_5.7.ppc.rpm
  • glibc-devel-2.5-49.el5_5.7.ppc.rpm
  • glibc-2.5-49.el5_5.7.ia64.rpm
  • glibc-utils-2.5-49.el5_5.7.i386.rpm
  • glibc-headers-2.5-49.el5_5.7.ppc.rpm
  • glibc-utils-2.5-49.el5_5.7.ia64.rpm
  • glibc-2.5-49.el5_5.7.s390.rpm
  • glibc-devel-2.5-49.el5_5.7.ia64.rpm
  • glibc-utils-2.5-49.el5_5.7.s390x.rpm
  • glibc-2.5-49.el5_5.7.i386.rpm
  • nscd-2.5-49.el5_5.7.s390x.rpm
  • glibc-common-2.5-49.el5_5.7.i386.rpm
  • glibc-2.5-49.el5_5.7.i686.rpm
  • glibc-common-2.5-49.el5_5.7.ia64.rpm
  • glibc-headers-2.5-49.el5_5.7.i386.rpm
  • glibc-2.5-49.el5_5.7.src.rpm
  • glibc-devel-2.5-49.el5_5.7.s390.rpm
  • glibc-devel-2.5-49.el5_5.7.s390x.rpm
  • glibc-devel-2.5-49.el5_5.7.ppc64.rpm
  • glibc-headers-2.5-49.el5_5.7.ia64.rpm
  • glibc-2.5-49.el5_5.7.ppc64.rpm
  • glibc-headers-2.5-49.el5_5.7.x86_64.rpm
  • glibc-headers-2.5-49.el5_5.7.s390x.rpm
  • nscd-2.5-49.el5_5.7.ppc.rpm

Fixes

CVEs

References

Additional information