Moderate: w3m security update

Related Vulnerabilities: CVE-2010-2074   CVE-2010-2074  

Synopsis

Moderate: w3m security update

Type/Severity

Security Advisory: Moderate

Topic

Updated w3m packages that fix one 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.

Description

The w3m program is a pager (or text file viewer) that can also be used as a
text mode web browser.

It was discovered that w3m is affected by the previously published "null
prefix attack", caused by incorrect handling of NULL characters in X.509
certificates. If an attacker is able to get a carefully-crafted certificate
signed by a trusted Certificate Authority, the attacker could use the
certificate during a man-in-the-middle attack and potentially confuse w3m
into accepting it by mistake. (CVE-2010-2074)

All w3m users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain a
backported patch to correct this issue.

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
http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/docs/DOC-11259

Affected Products

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 ia64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 i386
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 i386
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 i386
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 5 s390x
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 5 ppc
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 i386

Fixes

  • BZ - 604855 - CVE-2010-2074 w3m: doesn't handle NULL in Common Name properly

CVEs

References