Issued:
2013-09-30
Updated:
2013-09-30

RHSA-2013:1302 - Low: xinetd security and bug fix update

Synopsis

Low: xinetd security and bug fix update

Type/Severity

Security Advisory Low

Topic

An updated xinetd package that fixes one security issue and two bugs is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having low 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 xinetd package provides a secure replacement for inetd, the Internet services daemon. xinetd provides access control for all services based on the address of the remote host and/or on time of access, and can prevent denial-of-access attacks.

When xinetd services are configured with the "TCPMUX" or "TCPMUXPLUS" type, and the tcpmux-server service is enabled, those services are accessible via port 1. It was found that enabling the tcpmux-server service (it is disabled by default) allowed every xinetd service, including those that are not configured with the "TCPMUX" or "TCPMUXPLUS" type, to be accessible via port 1. This could allow a remote attacker to bypass intended firewall restrictions. (CVE-2012-0862)

Red Hat would like to thank Thomas Swan of FedEx for reporting this issue.

This update also fixes the following bugs:

  • Prior to this update, a file descriptor array in the service.c source file was not handled as expected. As a consequence, some of the descriptors remained open when xinetd was under heavy load. Additionally, the system log was filled with a large number of messages that took up a lot of disk space over time. This update modifies the xinetd code to handle the file descriptors correctly and messages no longer fill the system log. (BZ#852274)

  • Prior to this update, services were disabled permanently when their CPS limit was reached. As a consequence, a failed bind operation could occur when xinetd attempted to restart the service. This update adds additional logic that attempts to restart the service. Now, the service is only disabled if xinetd cannot restart the service after 30 attempts. (BZ#811000)

All users of xinetd are advised to upgrade to this updated package, which contains 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/site/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

  • xinetd-2.3.14-19.el5.i386.rpm
  • xinetd-2.3.14-19.el5.src.rpm
  • xinetd-2.3.14-19.el5.ppc.rpm
  • xinetd-debuginfo-2.3.14-19.el5.i386.rpm
  • xinetd-2.3.14-19.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • xinetd-debuginfo-2.3.14-19.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • xinetd-debuginfo-2.3.14-19.el5.s390x.rpm
  • xinetd-debuginfo-2.3.14-19.el5.ia64.rpm
  • xinetd-2.3.14-19.el5.ia64.rpm
  • xinetd-2.3.14-19.el5.s390x.rpm
  • xinetd-debuginfo-2.3.14-19.el5.ppc.rpm

Fixes

CVEs

References

Additional information