Low: initscripts security and bug fix update

Related Vulnerabilities: CVE-2008-1198   CVE-2008-1198  

Synopsis

Low: initscripts security and bug fix update

Type/Severity

Security Advisory: Low

Topic

An updated initscripts package that fixes one security issue and four 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 initscripts package contains system scripts to boot your system, change
runlevels, activate and deactivate most network interfaces, and shut the
system down cleanly.

With the default IPsec (Internet Protocol Security) ifup script
configuration, the racoon IKE key management daemon used aggressive IKE
mode instead of main IKE mode. This resulted in the preshared key (PSK)
hash being sent unencrypted, which could make it easier for an attacker
able to sniff network traffic to obtain the plain text PSK from a
transmitted hash. (CVE-2008-1198)

Red Hat would like to thank Aleksander Adamowski for reporting this issue.

This update also fixes the following bugs:

  • Prior to this update, the DHCPv6 client was not terminated when the
    network service was stopped. This update modifies the source so that the
    client is now terminated when stopping the network service. (BZ#568896)
  • Prior to this update, on some systems the rm command failed and reported
    the error message "rm: cannot remove directory `/var/run/dovecot/login/':
    Is a directory" during system boot. This update modifies the source so that
    this error message no longer appears. (BZ#679998)
  • Prior to this update, the netconsole script could not discover and
    resolve the MAC address of the router specified in the
    /etc/sysconfig/netconsole file. This update modifies the netconsole script
    so that the script no longer fails when the arping tool returns the MAC
    address of the router more than once. (BZ#744734)
  • Prior to this update, the arp_ip_target was, due to a logic error, not
    correctly removed via sysfs. As a consequence, the error "ifdown-eth: line
    64: echo: write error: Invalid argument" was reported when attempting to
    shut down a bonding device. This update modifies the script so that the
    error no longer appears and arp_ip_target is now correctly removed.
    (BZ#745681)

All users of initscripts are advised to upgrade to this updated package,
which fixes 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/kb/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 - 435274 - CVE-2008-1198 IPSec ifup script allows for aggressive IKE mode
  • BZ - 679998 - [REG][5.6] rm command reports an error message during system booting.

CVEs

References