Moderate: dracut security, bug fix, and enhancement update
Security Advisory: Moderate
Updated dracut packages that fix one security issue, several bugs, and add
two enhancements 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.
The dracut packages include an event-driven initramfs generator
infrastructure based on the udev device manager. The virtual file system,
initramfs, is loaded together with the kernel at boot time and initializes
the system, so it can read and boot from the root partition.
It was discovered that dracut created initramfs images as world readable.
A local user could possibly use this flaw to obtain sensitive information
from these files, such as iSCSI authentication passwords, encrypted root
file system crypttab passwords, or other information. (CVE-2012-4453)
This issue was discovered by Peter Jones of the Red Hat Installer Team.
These updated dracut packages include numerous bug fixes and two
enhancements. Space precludes documenting all of these changes in this
advisory. Users are directed to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 Technical
Notes, linked to in the References, for information on the most significant
of these changes.
All dracut users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which
contain backported patches to correct these issues and add these
enhancements.
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
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