Issued:

2010-11-17

Updated:

2010-11-17

RHSA-2010:0894 - 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 and 6.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having important security impact. Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base scores, which give detailed severity ratings, are available for each vulnerability from the CVE links in the References section.

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. staprun, the SystemTap runtime tool, is used for managing SystemTap kernel modules (for example, loading them).

It was discovered that staprun did not properly sanitize the environment before executing the modprobe command to load an additional kernel module. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to escalate their privileges. (CVE-2010-4170)

It was discovered that staprun did not check if the module to be unloaded was previously loaded by SystemTap. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to unload an arbitrary kernel module that was not in use. (CVE-2010-4171)

Note: After installing this update, users already in the stapdev group must be added to the stapusr group in order to be able to run the staprun tool.

Red Hat would like to thank Tavis Ormandy for reporting these issues.

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

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

Updated Packages

• systemtap-grapher-1.2-11.el6_0.x86_64.rpm
• systemtap-sdt-devel-1.1-3.el5_5.3.s390.rpm
• systemtap-1.2-11.el6_0.i686.rpm
• systemtap-testsuite-1.2-11.el6_0.ppc64.rpm
• systemtap-initscript-1.2-11.el6_0.i686.rpm
• systemtap-client-1.1-3.el5_5.3.i386.rpm
• systemtap-testsuite-1.1-3.el5_5.3.s390x.rpm
• systemtap-server-1.1-3.el5_5.3.x86_64.rpm
• systemtap-debuginfo-1.2-11.el6_0.s390.rpm
• systemtap-1.1-3.el5_5.3.s390x.rpm
• systemtap-initscript-1.2-11.el6_0.s390x.rpm
• systemtap-server-1.2-11.el6_0.s390x.rpm
• systemtap-1.2-11.el6_0.ppc64.rpm
• systemtap-grapher-1.2-11.el6_0.ppc64.rpm
• systemtap-sdt-devel-1.1-3.el5_5.3.i386.rpm
• systemtap-runtime-1.1-3.el5_5.3.ppc64.rpm
• systemtap-testsuite-1.2-11.el6_0.s390x.rpm
• systemtap-sdt-devel-1.1-3.el5_5.3.ia64.rpm
• systemtap-1.1-3.el5_5.3.src.rpm
• systemtap-server-1.1-3.el5_5.3.s390x.rpm
• systemtap-initscript-1.1-3.el5_5.3.x86_64.rpm
• systemtap-testsuite-1.2-11.el6_0.x86_64.rpm
• systemtap-initscript-1.2-11.el6_0.x86_64.rpm
• systemtap-server-1.1-3.el5_5.3.ia64.rpm
• systemtap-initscript-1.1-3.el5_5.3.ia64.rpm
• systemtap-server-1.2-11.el6_0.x86_64.rpm
• systemtap-initscript-1.2-11.el6_0.ppc64.rpm
• systemtap-runtime-1.2-11.el6_0.s390x.rpm
• systemtap-runtime-1.2-11.el6_0.i686.rpm
• systemtap-initscript-1.1-3.el5_5.3.s390x.rpm
• systemtap-testsuite-1.1-3.el5_5.3.x86_64.rpm
• systemtap-1.1-3.el5_5.3.ia64.rpm
• systemtap-runtime-1.1-3.el5_5.3.s390x.rpm
• systemtap-sdt-devel-1.1-3.el5_5.3.ppc64.rpm
• systemtap-runtime-1.1-3.el5_5.3.x86_64.rpm
• systemtap-grapher-1.2-11.el6_0.i686.rpm
• systemtap-sdt-devel-1.1-3.el5_5.3.x86_64.rpm
• systemtap-testsuite-1.1-3.el5_5.3.i386.rpm
• systemtap-client-1.1-3.el5_5.3.ppc64.rpm
• systemtap-server-1.1-3.el5_5.3.i386.rpm
• systemtap-debuginfo-1.2-11.el6_0.ppc64.rpm
• systemtap-debuginfo-1.2-11.el6_0.i686.rpm
• systemtap-sdt-devel-1.2-11.el6_0.ppc64.rpm
• systemtap-grapher-1.2-11.el6_0.s390x.rpm
• systemtap-1.1-3.el5_5.3.ppc64.rpm
• systemtap-server-1.1-3.el5_5.3.ppc64.rpm
• systemtap-initscript-1.1-3.el5_5.3.ppc64.rpm
• systemtap-testsuite-1.1-3.el5_5.3.ia64.rpm
• systemtap-testsuite-1.1-3.el5_5.3.ppc64.rpm
• systemtap-sdt-devel-1.2-11.el6_0.x86_64.rpm
• systemtap-server-1.2-11.el6_0.ppc64.rpm
• systemtap-sdt-devel-1.2-11.el6_0.s390.rpm
• systemtap-1.2-11.el6_0.src.rpm
• systemtap-client-1.2-11.el6_0.ppc64.rpm
• systemtap-1.2-11.el6_0.s390x.rpm
• systemtap-testsuite-1.2-11.el6_0.i686.rpm
• systemtap-server-1.2-11.el6_0.i686.rpm
• systemtap-sdt-devel-1.2-11.el6_0.ppc.rpm
• systemtap-runtime-1.1-3.el5_5.3.i386.rpm
• systemtap-sdt-devel-1.2-11.el6_0.i686.rpm
• systemtap-client-1.2-11.el6_0.i686.rpm
• systemtap-runtime-1.2-11.el6_0.ppc64.rpm
• systemtap-initscript-1.1-3.el5_5.3.i386.rpm
• systemtap-debuginfo-1.2-11.el6_0.s390x.rpm
• systemtap-client-1.2-11.el6_0.x86_64.rpm
• systemtap-client-1.1-3.el5_5.3.ia64.rpm
• systemtap-client-1.1-3.el5_5.3.s390x.rpm
• systemtap-debuginfo-1.2-11.el6_0.ppc.rpm
• systemtap-sdt-devel-1.1-3.el5_5.3.s390x.rpm
• systemtap-runtime-1.1-3.el5_5.3.ia64.rpm
• systemtap-debuginfo-1.2-11.el6_0.x86_64.rpm
• systemtap-1.2-11.el6_0.x86_64.rpm
• systemtap-client-1.2-11.el6_0.s390x.rpm
• systemtap-1.1-3.el5_5.3.i386.rpm
• systemtap-runtime-1.2-11.el6_0.x86_64.rpm
• systemtap-client-1.1-3.el5_5.3.x86_64.rpm
• systemtap-sdt-devel-1.2-11.el6_0.s390x.rpm
• systemtap-1.1-3.el5_5.3.x86_64.rpm

Fixes

• This content is not included.BZ - 653604
• This content is not included.BZ - 653606

CVEs

• CVE-2010-4170
• CVE-2010-4171

References

• https://access.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.