Issued:
2012-06-18
Updated:
2012-06-18

RHSA-2012:0745 - Moderate: python security update

Synopsis

Moderate: python security update

Type/Severity

Security Advisory Moderate

Topic

Updated python 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

Python is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language.

A denial of service flaw was found in the implementation of associative arrays (dictionaries) in Python. An attacker able to supply a large number of inputs to a Python application (such as HTTP POST request parameters sent to a web application) that are used as keys when inserting data into an array could trigger multiple hash function collisions, making array operations take an excessive amount of CPU time. To mitigate this issue, randomization has been added to the hash function to reduce the chance of an attacker successfully causing intentional collisions. (CVE-2012-1150)

Note: The hash randomization is not enabled by default as it may break applications that incorrectly depend on dictionary ordering. To enable the protection, the new "PYTHONHASHSEED" environment variable or the Python interpreter's "-R" command line option can be used. Refer to the python(1) manual page for details.

The RHSA-2012:0731 expat erratum must be installed with this update, which adds hash randomization to the Expat library used by the Python pyexpat module.

A flaw was found in the way the Python SimpleHTTPServer module generated directory listings. An attacker able to upload a file with a specially-crafted name to a server could possibly perform a cross-site scripting (XSS) attack against victims visiting a listing page generated by SimpleHTTPServer, for a directory containing the crafted file (if the victims were using certain web browsers). (CVE-2011-4940)

A race condition was found in the way the Python distutils module set file permissions during the creation of the .pypirc file. If a local user had access to the home directory of another user who is running distutils, they could use this flaw to gain access to that user's .pypirc file, which can contain usernames and passwords for code repositories. (CVE-2011-4944)

Red Hat would like to thank oCERT for reporting CVE-2012-1150. oCERT acknowledges Julian Walde and Alexander Klink as the original reporters of CVE-2012-1150.

All Python 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 https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/articles/11258

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

  • python-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.ia64.rpm
  • python-libs-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.x86_64.rpm
  • python-devel-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.i386.rpm
  • python-tools-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.s390x.rpm
  • tkinter-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.i386.rpm
  • tkinter-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.s390x.rpm
  • python-tools-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.ia64.rpm
  • python-devel-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.ppc.rpm
  • python-libs-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.ppc.rpm
  • python-debuginfo-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.x86_64.rpm
  • python-devel-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.ppc64.rpm
  • python-devel-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.x86_64.rpm
  • python-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.src.rpm
  • python-libs-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.ppc64.rpm
  • python-debuginfo-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.s390.rpm
  • python-debuginfo-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.ppc.rpm
  • python-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.x86_64.rpm
  • python-devel-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.s390.rpm
  • tkinter-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.x86_64.rpm
  • python-devel-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.s390x.rpm
  • python-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.i386.rpm
  • tkinter-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.ppc.rpm
  • python-libs-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.ia64.rpm
  • tkinter-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.ia64.rpm
  • python-tools-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.ppc.rpm
  • python-debuginfo-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.ppc64.rpm
  • python-tools-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.x86_64.rpm
  • python-libs-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.s390x.rpm
  • python-devel-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.ia64.rpm
  • python-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.s390x.rpm
  • python-tools-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.i386.rpm
  • python-debuginfo-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.ia64.rpm
  • python-libs-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.i386.rpm
  • python-debuginfo-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.i386.rpm
  • python-debuginfo-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.s390x.rpm
  • python-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.ppc.rpm

Fixes

CVEs

References

Additional information