Issued:
2012-04-11
Updated:
2012-04-11

RHSA-2012:0474 - Moderate: tomcat5 security update


Synopsis

Moderate: tomcat5 security update

Type/Severity

Security Advisory Moderate

Topic

Updated tomcat5 packages that fix two 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

Apache Tomcat is a servlet container for the Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages (JSP) technologies.

It was found that the Java hashCode() method implementation was susceptible to predictable hash collisions. A remote attacker could use this flaw to cause Tomcat to use an excessive amount of CPU time by sending an HTTP request with a large number of parameters whose names map to the same hash value. This update introduces a limit on the number of parameters processed per request to mitigate this issue. The default limit is 512 for parameters and 128 for headers. These defaults can be changed by setting the org.apache.tomcat.util.http.Parameters.MAX_COUNT and org.apache.tomcat.util.http.MimeHeaders.MAX_COUNT system properties. (CVE-2011-4858)

It was found that Tomcat did not handle large numbers of parameters and large parameter values efficiently. A remote attacker could make Tomcat use an excessive amount of CPU time by sending an HTTP request containing a large number of parameters or large parameter values. This update introduces limits on the number of parameters and headers processed per request to address this issue. Refer to the CVE-2011-4858 description for information about the org.apache.tomcat.util.http.Parameters.MAX_COUNT and org.apache.tomcat.util.http.MimeHeaders.MAX_COUNT system properties. (CVE-2012-0022)

Red Hat would like to thank oCERT for reporting CVE-2011-4858. oCERT acknowledges Julian Walde and Alexander Klink as the original reporters of CVE-2011-4858.

Users of Tomcat should upgrade to these updated packages, which correct these issues. Tomcat must be restarted for this update to take effect.

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

  • tomcat5-servlet-2.4-api-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.i386.rpm
  • tomcat5-server-lib-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.x86_64.rpm
  • tomcat5-jsp-2.0-api-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.x86_64.rpm
  • tomcat5-servlet-2.4-api-javadoc-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.i386.rpm
  • tomcat5-servlet-2.4-api-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.x86_64.rpm
  • tomcat5-jasper-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.x86_64.rpm
  • tomcat5-jasper-javadoc-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.i386.rpm
  • tomcat5-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.i386.rpm
  • tomcat5-servlet-2.4-api-javadoc-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.ppc.rpm
  • tomcat5-jasper-javadoc-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.ia64.rpm
  • tomcat5-jasper-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.ppc.rpm
  • tomcat5-jasper-javadoc-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.x86_64.rpm
  • tomcat5-servlet-2.4-api-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.s390x.rpm
  • tomcat5-webapps-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.i386.rpm
  • tomcat5-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.s390x.rpm
  • tomcat5-jsp-2.0-api-javadoc-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.i386.rpm
  • tomcat5-jsp-2.0-api-javadoc-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.ia64.rpm
  • tomcat5-jsp-2.0-api-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.ia64.rpm
  • tomcat5-server-lib-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.s390x.rpm
  • tomcat5-admin-webapps-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.i386.rpm
  • tomcat5-admin-webapps-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.s390x.rpm
  • tomcat5-jsp-2.0-api-javadoc-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.x86_64.rpm
  • tomcat5-jsp-2.0-api-javadoc-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.ppc.rpm
  • tomcat5-jasper-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.s390x.rpm
  • tomcat5-servlet-2.4-api-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.ia64.rpm
  • tomcat5-jsp-2.0-api-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.s390x.rpm
  • tomcat5-jsp-2.0-api-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.i386.rpm
  • tomcat5-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.ia64.rpm
  • tomcat5-servlet-2.4-api-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.ppc.rpm
  • tomcat5-servlet-2.4-api-javadoc-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.ia64.rpm
  • tomcat5-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.x86_64.rpm
  • tomcat5-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.ppc.rpm
  • tomcat5-webapps-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.s390x.rpm
  • tomcat5-jsp-2.0-api-javadoc-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.s390x.rpm
  • tomcat5-common-lib-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.s390x.rpm
  • tomcat5-servlet-2.4-api-javadoc-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.x86_64.rpm
  • tomcat5-admin-webapps-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.ia64.rpm
  • tomcat5-admin-webapps-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.x86_64.rpm
  • tomcat5-jasper-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.ia64.rpm
  • tomcat5-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.ppc64.rpm
  • tomcat5-jasper-javadoc-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.ppc.rpm
  • tomcat5-servlet-2.4-api-javadoc-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.s390x.rpm
  • tomcat5-webapps-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.ia64.rpm
  • tomcat5-server-lib-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.ppc.rpm
  • tomcat5-webapps-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.x86_64.rpm
  • tomcat5-webapps-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.ppc.rpm
  • tomcat5-common-lib-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.i386.rpm
  • tomcat5-jasper-javadoc-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.s390x.rpm
  • tomcat5-server-lib-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.ia64.rpm
  • tomcat5-server-lib-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.i386.rpm
  • tomcat5-common-lib-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.ia64.rpm
  • tomcat5-common-lib-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.ppc.rpm
  • tomcat5-jasper-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.i386.rpm
  • tomcat5-common-lib-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.x86_64.rpm
  • tomcat5-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.src.rpm
  • tomcat5-admin-webapps-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.ppc.rpm
  • tomcat5-jsp-2.0-api-5.5.23-0jpp.31.el5_8.ppc.rpm

Fixes

CVEs

References


Additional information