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Red Hat Enterprise Linux: 2010:0894-01 Important: SystemTap Escalation

red hat
Calendar Grey November 17, 2010
Dist Redhat Esm H88
An update has been released for the systemtap packages, rectifying two significant vulnerabilities classified by Red Hat as critical for safeguarding the system.
Updated systemtap packages that fix two security issues are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and 6

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

Summary

SystemTap is an instrumentation system for systems running the Linux kernel, version 2.6. Developers can write scripts to collect data on the operation of the system. staprun, the SystemTap runtime tool, is used for managing SystemTap kernel modules (for example, loading them).
It was discovered that staprun did not properly sanitize the environment before executing the modprobe command to load an additional kernel module. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to escalate their privileges. (CVE-2010-4170)
It was discovered that staprun did not check if the module to be unloaded was previously loaded by SystemTap. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to unload an arbitrary kernel module that was not in use. (CVE-2010-4171)
Note: After installing this update, users already in the stapdev group must be added to the stapusr group in order to be able to run the staprun tool.
Red Hat would like to thank Tavis Ormandy for reporting these issues.
SystemTap users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues.

Topics%20covered

Topics Covered

security advisory important systemtap racial-issues privilege-escalation red-hat kernel-module

References

https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2010-4170 https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2010-4171 https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#important

Package List

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 5 client):
Source:
i386: systemtap-1.1-3.el5_5.3.i386.rpm systemtap-client-1.1-3.el5_5.3.i386.rpm systemtap-debuginfo-1.1-3.el5_5.3.i386.rpm systemtap-initscript-1.1-3.el5_5.3.i386.rpm systemtap-runtime-1.1-3.el5_5.3.i386.rpm systemtap-sdt-devel-1.1-3.el5_5.3.i386.rpm systemtap-server-1.1-3.el5_5.3.i386.rpm systemtap-testsuite-1.1-3.el5_5.3.i386.rpm
x86_64: systemtap-1.1-3.el5_5.3.x86_64.rpm systemtap-client-1.1-3.el5_5.3.x86_64.rpm systemtap-debuginfo-1.1-3.el5_5.3.i386.rpm systemtap-debuginfo-1.1-3.el5_5.3.x86_64.rpm systemtap-initscript-1.1-3.el5_5.3.x86_64.rpm systemtap-runtime-1.1-3.el5_5.3.x86_64.rpm systemtap-sdt-devel-1.1-3.el5_5.3.i386.rpm systemtap-sdt-devel-1.1-3.el5_5.3.x86_64.rpm systemtap-server-1.1-3.el5_5.3.x86_64.rpm systemtap-testsuite-1.1-3.el5_5.3.x86_64.rpm
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server):
Source:
i386: systemtap-1.1-3.el5_5.3.i386.rpm systemtap-client-1.1-3.el5_5.3.i386.rpm systemtap-debuginfo-1.1-3.el5_5.3.i386.rpm systemtap-initscript-1.1-3.el5_5.3.i386.rpm systemtap-runtime-1.1-3.el5_5.3.i386.rpm systemtap-sdt-devel-1.1-3.el5_5.3.i386.rpm systemtap-server-1.1-3.el5_5.3.i386.rpm systemtap-testsuite-1.1-3.el5_5.3.i386.rpm
ia64: systemtap-1.1-3.el5_5.3.ia64.rpm systemtap-client-1.1-3.el5_5.3.ia64.rpm

Read the Full Advisory


Severity
important
Lowest
Low
Medium
High
Critical

Advisory ID: RHSA-2010:0894-01
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Advisory URL: https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2010:0894.html
Issue date: 2010-11-17

Topic

Updated systemtap packages that fix two security issues are now availablefor Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and 6.The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as havingimportant security impact. Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) basescores, which give detailed severity ratings, are available for eachvulnerability from the CVE links in the References section.

Topics%20covered

Topics Covered

security advisory important systemtap racial-issues privilege-escalation red-hat kernel-module

Relevant Releases Architectures

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server) - i386, ia64, ppc, s390x, x86_64

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 5 client) - i386, x86_64

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) - i386, x86_64

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Optional (v. 6) - i386, x86_64

Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node (v. 6) - x86_64

Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) - x86_64

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) - i386, ppc64, s390x, x86_64

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 6) - i386, ppc64, s390x, x86_64

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) - i386, x86_64

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 6) - i386, x86_64

Bugs Fixed

653604 - CVE-2010-4170 Systemtap: Insecure loading of modules

653606 - CVE-2010-4171 Systemtap: Ability to remove unused modules by unprivileged user

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