Moderate: pcsc-lite security and bug fix update

Synopsis

Moderate: pcsc-lite security and bug fix update

Type/Severity

Security Advisory: Moderate

Topic

Updated pcsc-lite packages that fix one security issue and three bugs are
now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

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.

Description

PC/SC Lite provides a Windows SCard compatible interface for communicating
with smart cards, smart card readers, and other security tokens.

A stack-based buffer overflow flaw was found in the way pcsc-lite decoded
certain attribute values of Answer-to-Reset (ATR) messages. A local
attacker could use this flaw to execute arbitrary code with the privileges
of the user running the pcscd daemon (root, by default), by inserting a
specially-crafted smart card. (CVE-2010-4531)

This update also fixes the following bugs:

• Due to an error in the init script, the chkconfig utility did not
  automatically place the pcscd init script after the start of the HAL
  daemon. Consequently, the pcscd service did not start automatically at boot
  time. With this update, the pcscd init script has been changed to
  explicitly start only after HAL is up, thus fixing this bug. (BZ#788474,
  BZ#814549)
  
• Because the chkconfig settings and the startup files in the /etc/rc.d/
  directory were not changed during the update described in the
  RHBA-2012:0990 advisory, the user had to update the chkconfig settings
  manually to fix the problem. Now, the chkconfig settings and the startup
  files in the /etc/rc.d/ directory are automatically updated as expected.
  (BZ#834803)
  
• Previously, the SCardGetAttrib() function did not work properly and
  always returned the "SCARD_E_INSUFFICIENT_BUFFER" error regardless of the
  actual buffer size. This update applies a patch to fix this bug and the
  SCardGetAttrib() function now works as expected. (BZ#891852)
  

All users of pcsc-lite are advised to upgrade to these updated packages,
which fix these issues. After installing this update, the pcscd daemon will
be restarted automatically.

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

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 6 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 6 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Scientific Computing 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 6 i386

Fixes

• BZ - 664999 - CVE-2010-4531 pcsc-lite: Stack-based buffer overflow in Answer-to-Reset (ATR) decoder
• BZ - 834803 - Update of pcsc-lite does not fix problems addressed in BUG 812469
• BZ - 891852 - pcsc-lite: incorrect check in SCardGetAttrib and SCardSetAttrib handling

CVEs

• CVE-2010-4531

References

• https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#moderate