Issued:
2012-02-13
Updated:
2012-02-13

RHSA-2012:0126 - Moderate: glibc security update

Synopsis

Moderate: glibc security update

Type/Severity

Security Advisory Moderate

Topic

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

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having moderate 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

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.

An integer overflow flaw, leading to a heap-based buffer overflow, was found in the way the glibc library read timezone files. If a carefully-crafted timezone file was loaded by an application linked against glibc, it could cause the application to crash or, potentially, execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running the application. (CVE-2009-5029)

A flaw was found in the way the ldd utility identified dynamically linked libraries. If an attacker could trick a user into running ldd on a malicious binary, it could result in arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the user running ldd. (CVE-2009-5064)

An integer overflow flaw, leading to a heap-based buffer overflow, was found in the way the glibc library loaded ELF (Executable and Linking Format) files. If a carefully-crafted ELF file was loaded by an application linked against glibc, it could cause the application to crash or, potentially, execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running the application. (CVE-2010-0830)

It was found that the glibc addmntent() function, used by various mount helper utilities, did not handle certain errors correctly when updating the mtab (mounted file systems table) file. If such utilities had the setuid bit set, a local attacker could use this flaw to corrupt the mtab file. (CVE-2011-1089)

A denial of service flaw was found in the remote procedure call (RPC) implementation in glibc. A remote attacker able to open a large number of connections to an RPC service that is using the RPC implementation from glibc, could use this flaw to make that service use an excessive amount of CPU time. (CVE-2011-4609)

Red Hat would like to thank the Ubuntu Security Team for reporting CVE-2010-0830, and Dan Rosenberg for reporting CVE-2011-1089. The Ubuntu Security Team acknowledges Dan Rosenberg as the original reporter of CVE-2010-0830.

Users should upgrade to these updated packages, which resolve 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.https://access.redhat.com/kb/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-2.5-65.el5_7.3.x86_64.rpm
  • glibc-headers-2.5-65.el5_7.3.ia64.rpm
  • glibc-utils-2.5-65.el5_7.3.ia64.rpm
  • glibc-devel-2.5-65.el5_7.3.i386.rpm
  • glibc-headers-2.5-65.el5_7.3.x86_64.rpm
  • glibc-headers-2.5-65.el5_7.3.s390x.rpm
  • glibc-devel-2.5-65.el5_7.3.ppc64.rpm
  • glibc-devel-2.5-65.el5_7.3.s390x.rpm
  • glibc-2.5-65.el5_7.3.ia64.rpm
  • glibc-common-2.5-65.el5_7.3.ia64.rpm
  • nscd-2.5-65.el5_7.3.i386.rpm
  • glibc-common-2.5-65.el5_7.3.s390x.rpm
  • glibc-2.5-65.el5_7.3.ppc64.rpm
  • nscd-2.5-65.el5_7.3.ppc.rpm
  • glibc-2.5-65.el5_7.3.src.rpm
  • glibc-2.5-65.el5_7.3.i686.rpm
  • glibc-utils-2.5-65.el5_7.3.x86_64.rpm
  • glibc-devel-2.5-65.el5_7.3.s390.rpm
  • glibc-2.5-65.el5_7.3.s390x.rpm
  • glibc-common-2.5-65.el5_7.3.ppc.rpm
  • glibc-2.5-65.el5_7.3.s390.rpm
  • glibc-devel-2.5-65.el5_7.3.ppc.rpm
  • glibc-headers-2.5-65.el5_7.3.i386.rpm
  • glibc-utils-2.5-65.el5_7.3.s390x.rpm
  • nscd-2.5-65.el5_7.3.s390x.rpm
  • glibc-utils-2.5-65.el5_7.3.ppc.rpm
  • glibc-2.5-65.el5_7.3.x86_64.rpm
  • glibc-devel-2.5-65.el5_7.3.ia64.rpm
  • glibc-devel-2.5-65.el5_7.3.x86_64.rpm
  • glibc-headers-2.5-65.el5_7.3.ppc.rpm
  • glibc-utils-2.5-65.el5_7.3.i386.rpm
  • glibc-common-2.5-65.el5_7.3.x86_64.rpm
  • glibc-common-2.5-65.el5_7.3.i386.rpm
  • glibc-2.5-65.el5_7.3.ppc.rpm
  • nscd-2.5-65.el5_7.3.ia64.rpm
  • glibc-2.5-65.el5_7.3.i386.rpm

Fixes

CVEs

References

Additional information