Issued:
2011-03-28
Updated:
2011-03-28

RHSA-2011:0395 - Moderate: gdm security update

Synopsis

Moderate: gdm security update

Type/Severity

Security Advisory Moderate

Topic

Updated gdm packages that fix one security issue are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having moderate 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 GNOME Display Manager (GDM) provides the graphical login screen, shown shortly after boot up, log out, and when user-switching.

A race condition flaw was found in the way GDM handled the cache directories used to store users' dmrc and face icon files. A local attacker could use this flaw to trick GDM into changing the ownership of an arbitrary file via a symbolic link attack, allowing them to escalate their privileges. (CVE-2011-0727)

Red Hat would like to thank Sebastian Krahmer of the SuSE Security Team for reporting this issue.

All users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain a backported patch to correct this issue. GDM must be restarted for this update to take effect. Rebooting achieves this, but changing the runlevel from 5 to 3 and back to 5 also restarts GDM.

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.https://access.redhat.com/kb/docs/DOC-11259

Affected Products

ProductVersionArch
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Scientific Computing6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian6ppc64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems6s390x
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation6i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server6i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI6i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support6i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension6i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension (for IBM z Systems)6s390x
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support (for IBM z Systems)6s390x
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop6i386

Updated Packages

  • gdm-debuginfo-2.30.4-21.el6_0.1.x86_64.rpm
  • gdm-user-switch-applet-2.30.4-21.el6_0.1.ppc64.rpm
  • gdm-user-switch-applet-2.30.4-21.el6_0.1.x86_64.rpm
  • gdm-2.30.4-21.el6_0.1.ppc64.rpm
  • gdm-plugin-fingerprint-2.30.4-21.el6_0.1.i686.rpm
  • gdm-debuginfo-2.30.4-21.el6_0.1.ppc64.rpm
  • gdm-debuginfo-2.30.4-21.el6_0.1.i686.rpm
  • gdm-plugin-smartcard-2.30.4-21.el6_0.1.ppc64.rpm
  • gdm-libs-2.30.4-21.el6_0.1.s390.rpm
  • gdm-libs-2.30.4-21.el6_0.1.ppc.rpm
  • gdm-libs-2.30.4-21.el6_0.1.x86_64.rpm
  • gdm-2.30.4-21.el6_0.1.src.rpm
  • gdm-2.30.4-21.el6_0.1.s390x.rpm
  • gdm-plugin-fingerprint-2.30.4-21.el6_0.1.ppc64.rpm
  • gdm-plugin-fingerprint-2.30.4-21.el6_0.1.s390x.rpm
  • gdm-2.30.4-21.el6_0.1.x86_64.rpm
  • gdm-debuginfo-2.30.4-21.el6_0.1.ppc.rpm
  • gdm-user-switch-applet-2.30.4-21.el6_0.1.s390x.rpm
  • gdm-2.30.4-21.el6_0.1.i686.rpm
  • gdm-libs-2.30.4-21.el6_0.1.ppc64.rpm
  • gdm-debuginfo-2.30.4-21.el6_0.1.s390x.rpm
  • gdm-plugin-smartcard-2.30.4-21.el6_0.1.x86_64.rpm
  • gdm-debuginfo-2.30.4-21.el6_0.1.s390.rpm
  • gdm-plugin-smartcard-2.30.4-21.el6_0.1.i686.rpm
  • gdm-plugin-smartcard-2.30.4-21.el6_0.1.s390x.rpm
  • gdm-plugin-fingerprint-2.30.4-21.el6_0.1.x86_64.rpm
  • gdm-libs-2.30.4-21.el6_0.1.i686.rpm
  • gdm-user-switch-applet-2.30.4-21.el6_0.1.i686.rpm
  • gdm-libs-2.30.4-21.el6_0.1.s390x.rpm

Fixes

CVEs

References

Additional information