Fedora Legacy alert: Updated cvs resolves security vulnerability

Posted by dave on Jan 28, 2004 9:35 PM EDT
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Updated cvs packages are now available that fix a security vulnerability which may allow cvs to attempt to create files and directories in the root file system, as well as prevent the cvsd from retaining root privileges after a user login.

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- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Fedora Legacy Update Advisory

Synopsis: Updated cvs resolves security vulnerability Advisory ID: FLSA:1207 Issue date: 2004-01-28 Product: Red Hat Linux Keywords: Security Cross references: https://bugzilla.fedora.us/show_bug.cgi?id=1207 CVE Names: CAN-2003-0977 - -----------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Topic:

Updated cvs packages are now available that fix a security vulnerability which may allow cvs to attempt to create files and directories in the root file system, as well as prevent the cvsd from retaining root privileges after a user login.

2. Relevant releases/architectures:

Red Hat Linux 7.2 - i386 Red Hat Linux 7.3 - i386 Red Hat Linux 8.0 - i386

3. Problem description:

CVS (Concurrent Version System) is a version control system that can record the history of your files (usually, but not always, source code). CVS only stores the differences between versions, instead of every version of every file you have ever created. CVS also keeps a log of who, when, and why changes occurred.

A flaw was found in versions of CVS prior to 1.11.10 where a malformed module request could cause the CVS server to attempt to create files or directories at the root level of the file system. However, normal file system permissions would prevent the creation of these misplaced directories. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CAN-2003-0977 to this issue.

Another flaw was found that would allow the cvsd process to continue to run as root after a user login. Previously, any user with the ability to write the CVSROOT/passwd file could execute arbitrary code as the root user on systems with CVS pserver access enabled.

Users of cvs should update to these update packages, which contain a backported security patch that corrects this issue. Fedora Legacy would like to thank Seth Vidal, Jason Rohwedder and Christian Pearce for providing a backported fix for Red Hat Linux 7.2, 7.3, and 8.0.

4. Solution:

Before applying this update, make sure all previously released errata relevant to your system have been applied.

To update all RPMs for your particular architecture, run:

rpm -Fvh [filenames]

where [filenames] is a list of the RPMs you wish to upgrade. Only those RPMs which are currently installed will be updated. Those RPMs which are not installed but included in the list will not be updated. Note that you can also use wildcards (*.rpm) if your current directory *only* contains the desired RPMs.

Please note that this update is also available via yum and apt. Many people find this an easier way to apply updates. To use yum issue:

yum update

or to use apt:

apt-get update; apt-get upgrade

This will start an interactive process that will result in the appropriate RPMs being upgraded on your system. This assumes that you have yum or apt-get configured for obtaining Fedora Legacy content. Please visit http://www.fedoralegacy.org/download for directions on how to configure yum and apt-get.

5. Bug IDs fixed:

http://bugzilla.fedora.us - 1207 - cvs security patches

6. RPMs required:

Red Hat Linux 7.2:

SRPMS: http://download.fedoralegacy.org/redhat/7.2/updates/SRPMS/cvs-1.11.1p1-9.7.legacy.src.rpm i386: http://download.fedoralegacy.org/redhat/7.2/updates/i386/cvs-1.11.1p1-9.7.legacy.i386.rpm

Red Hat Linux 7.3:

SRPMS: http://download.fedoralegacy.org/redhat/7.3/updates/SRPMS/cvs-1.11.1p1-9.7.legacy.src.rpm i386: http://download.fedoralegacy.org/redhat/7.3/updates/i386/cvs-1.11.1p1-9.7.legacy.i386.rpm

Red Hat Linux 8.0:

SRPMS: http://download.fedoralegacy.org/redhat/8.0/updates/SRPMS/cvs-1.11.2-9.legacy.src.rpm i386: http://download.fedoralegacy.org/redhat/8.0/updates/i386/cvs-1.11.2-9.legacy.i386.rpm

7. Verification:

SHA1 sum Package Name - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 46da2ca673b3af8a08eab8b1d4322e0d6a9d08ad 7.2/updates/SRPMS/cvs-1.11.1p1-9.7.legacy.src.rpm 469e08276fd61a06f816d4d7df68bc6c85a98560 7.2/updates/i386/cvs-1.11.1p1-9.7.legacy.i386.rpm

46da2ca673b3af8a08eab8b1d4322e0d6a9d08ad 7.3/updates/SRPMS/cvs-1.11.1p1-9.7.legacy.src.rpm 1dfba0ce740a20bd0977eede82f606ea2f907b00 7.3/updates/i386/cvs-1.11.1p1-9.7.legacy.i386.rpm

31e98f14255c132d3f548a51096b0c444a45797a 8.0/updates/SRPMS/cvs-1.11.2-9.legacy.src.rpm e415df08fdfd35216c68651aa5214e7ecdb04268 8.0/updates/i386/cvs-1.11.2-9.legacy.i386.rpm

These packages are GPG signed by Fedora Legacy for security. Our key is available from http://www.fedoralegacy.org/about/security.php

You can verify each package with the following command:

rpm --checksig -v

If you only wish to verify that each package has not been corrupted or tampered with, examine only the sha1sum with the following command:

sha1sum

8. References:

http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=



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