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Alerts This Week
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Red Hat 4 & 5 RHSA-2011-0422-01 Moderate: Postfix Security Threat

red hat
Calendar Grey April 6, 2011
Scroller Redhat
Latest postfix updates for CentOS address vulnerabilities; categorized as moderate. Crucial for strengthening email server protection.
Updated postfix packages that fix two security issues are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and 5

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

Summary

Postfix is a Mail Transport Agent (MTA), supporting LDAP, SMTP AUTH (SASL), and TLS.
It was discovered that Postfix did not flush the received SMTP commands buffer after switching to TLS encryption for an SMTP session. A man-in-the-middle attacker could use this flaw to inject SMTP commands into a victim's session during the plain text phase. This would lead to those commands being processed by Postfix after TLS encryption is enabled, possibly allowing the attacker to steal the victim's mail or authentication credentials. (CVE-2011-0411)
It was discovered that Postfix did not properly check the permissions of users' mailbox files. A local attacker able to create files in the mail spool directory could use this flaw to create mailbox files for other local users, and be able to read mail delivered to those users. (CVE-2008-2937)
Red Hat would like to thank the CERT/CC for reporting CVE-2011-0411, and Sebastian Krahmer of the SuSE Security Team for reporting CVE-2008-2937. The CERT/CC acknowledges Wietse Venema as the original reporter of CVE-2011-0411.
Users of Postfix are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to resolve these issues. After installing this update, the postfix service will be restarted automatically.

References

https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2008-2937 https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2011-0411 https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#moderate

Package List

Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS version 4:
Source:
i386: postfix-2.2.10-1.4.el4.i386.rpm postfix-debuginfo-2.2.10-1.4.el4.i386.rpm postfix-pflogsumm-2.2.10-1.4.el4.i386.rpm
ia64: postfix-2.2.10-1.4.el4.ia64.rpm postfix-debuginfo-2.2.10-1.4.el4.ia64.rpm postfix-pflogsumm-2.2.10-1.4.el4.ia64.rpm
ppc: postfix-2.2.10-1.4.el4.ppc.rpm postfix-debuginfo-2.2.10-1.4.el4.ppc.rpm postfix-pflogsumm-2.2.10-1.4.el4.ppc.rpm
s390: postfix-2.2.10-1.4.el4.s390.rpm postfix-debuginfo-2.2.10-1.4.el4.s390.rpm postfix-pflogsumm-2.2.10-1.4.el4.s390.rpm
s390x: postfix-2.2.10-1.4.el4.s390x.rpm postfix-debuginfo-2.2.10-1.4.el4.s390x.rpm postfix-pflogsumm-2.2.10-1.4.el4.s390x.rpm
x86_64: postfix-2.2.10-1.4.el4.x86_64.rpm postfix-debuginfo-2.2.10-1.4.el4.x86_64.rpm postfix-pflogsumm-2.2.10-1.4.el4.x86_64.rpm
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop version 4:
Source:
i386: postfix-2.2.10-1.4.el4.i386.rpm postfix-debuginfo-2.2.10-1.4.el4.i386.rpm postfix-pflogsumm-2.2.10-1.4.el4.i386.rpm
x86_64: postfix-2.2.10-1.4.el4.x86_64.rpm postfix-debuginfo-2.2.10-1.4.el4.x86_64.rpm postfix-pflogsumm-2.2.10-1.4.el4.x86_64.rpm
Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 4:
Source:
i386: postfix-2.2.10-1.4.el4.i386.rpm postfix-debuginfo-2.2.10-1.4.el4.i386.rpm postfix-pflogsumm-2.2.10-1.4.el4.i386.rpm
ia64:

Read the Full Advisory


Advisory ID: RHSA-2011:0422-01
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Issue date: 2011-04-06

Topic

Updated postfix packages that fix two security issues are now available forRed Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and 5.The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having moderatesecurity impact. Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base scores,which give detailed severity ratings, are available for each vulnerabilityfrom the CVE links in the References section.

Relevant Releases Architectures

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

Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS version 4 - i386, ia64, ppc, s390, s390x, x86_64

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

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop version 4 - i386, x86_64

Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 4 - i386, ia64, x86_64

Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 4 - i386, ia64, x86_64

Bugs Fixed

456347 - CVE-2008-2937 postfix improper mailbox permissions

674814 - CVE-2011-0411 postfix: SMTP commands injection during plaintext to TLS session switch

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