Moderate: openssl097a security update
Security Advisory: Moderate
Updated openssl097a packages that fix a security issue are now available
for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.
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.
OpenSSL is a toolkit that implements the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL v2/v3)
and Transport Layer Security (TLS v1) protocols, as well as a
full-strength, general purpose cryptography library.
A flaw was found in the way the TLS/SSL (Transport Layer Security/Secure
Sockets Layer) protocols handled session renegotiation. A man-in-the-middle
attacker could use this flaw to prefix arbitrary plain text to a client's
session (for example, an HTTPS connection to a website). This could force
the server to process an attacker's request as if authenticated using the
victim's credentials. This update addresses this flaw by implementing the
TLS Renegotiation Indication Extension, as defined in RFC 5746.
(CVE-2009-3555)
Refer to the following Knowledgebase article for additional details about
this flaw: http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/docs/DOC-20491
All openssl097a users should upgrade to these updated packages, which
contain a backported patch to resolve this issue. For the update to take
effect, all services linked to the openssl097a library must be restarted,
or the system rebooted.
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
http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/docs/DOC-11259