Low: busybox security and bug fix update

Synopsis

Low: busybox security and bug fix update

Type/Severity

Security Advisory: Low

Topic

Updated busybox packages that fix one security issue and several bugs are
now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

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

BusyBox provides a single binary that includes versions of a large number
of system commands, including a shell. This can be very useful for
recovering from certain types of system failures, particularly those
involving broken shared libraries.

It was found that the mdev BusyBox utility could create certain directories
within /dev with world-writable permissions. A local unprivileged user
could use this flaw to manipulate portions of the /dev directory tree.
(CVE-2013-1813)

This update also fixes the following bugs:

• Previously, due to a too eager string size optimization on the IBM System
  z architecture, the "wc" BusyBox command failed after processing standard
  input with the following error:
  

wc: : No such file or directory

This bug was fixed by disabling the string size optimization and the "wc"
command works properly on IBM System z architectures. (BZ#820097)

• Prior to this update, the "mknod" command was unable to create device
  nodes with a major or minor number larger than 255. Consequently, the kdump
  utility failed to handle such a device. The underlying source code has been
  modified, and it is now possible to use the "mknod" command to create
  device nodes with a major or minor number larger than 255. (BZ#859817)
  
• If a network installation from an NFS server was selected, the "mount"
  command used the UDP protocol by default. If only TCP mounts were supported
  by the server, this led to a failure of the mount command. As a result,
  Anaconda could not continue with the installation. This bug is now fixed
  and NFS mount operations default to the TCP protocol. (BZ#855832)
  

All busybox users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which
contain backported patches to correct 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/site/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 - 820097 - s390x: wc: : No such file or directory
• BZ - 919608 - CVE-2013-1813 busybox: insecure directory permissions in /dev

CVEs

• CVE-2013-1813

References

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