Home / mailings [RHSA-2013:1213-01] Important: gdm security update
Posted on 05 September 2013
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Red Hat Security Advisory
Synopsis: Important: gdm security update
Advisory ID: RHSA-2013:1213-01
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Advisory URL: https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2013-1213.html
Issue date: 2013-09-05
CVE Names: CVE-2013-4169
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1. Summary:
Updated gdm and initscripts packages that fix one security issue are now
available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.
The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having
important 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.
2. 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
3. Description:
The GNOME Display Manager (GDM) provides the graphical login screen, shown
shortly after boot up, log out, and when user-switching.
A race condition was found in the way GDM handled the X server sockets
directory located in the system temporary directory. An unprivileged user
could use this flaw to perform a symbolic link attack, giving them write
access to any file, allowing them to escalate their privileges to root.
(CVE-2013-4169)
Note that this erratum includes an updated initscripts package. To fix
CVE-2013-4169, the vulnerable code was removed from GDM and the initscripts
package was modified to create the affected directory safely during the
system boot process. Therefore, this update will appear on all systems,
however systems without GDM installed are not affected by this flaw.
Red Hat would like to thank the researcher with the nickname vladz for
reporting this issue.
All users should upgrade to these updated packages, which correct this
issue. The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.
4. 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
5. Bugs fixed (http://bugzilla.redhat.com/):
988498 - CVE-2013-4169 gdm: TOCTTOU race condition on /tmp/.X11-unix
6. Package List:
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 5 client):
Source:
ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/enterprise/5Client/en/os/SRPMS/gdm-2.16.0-59.el5_9.1.src.rpm
ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/enterprise/5Client/en/os/SRPMS/initscripts-8.45.42-2.el5_9.1.src.rpm
i386:
gdm-2.16.0-59.el5_9.1.i386.rpm
gdm-debuginfo-2.16.0-59.el5_9.1.i386.rpm
gdm-docs-2.16.0-59.el5_9.1.i386.rpm
initscripts-8.45.42-2.el5_9.1.i386.rpm
initscripts-debuginfo-8.45.42-2.el5_9.1.i386.rpm
x86_64:
gdm-2.16.0-59.el5_9.1.x86_64.rpm
gdm-debuginfo-2.16.0-59.el5_9.1.x86_64.rpm
gdm-docs-2.16.0-59.el5_9.1.x86_64.rpm
initscripts-8.45.42-2.el5_9.1.x86_64.rpm
initscripts-debuginfo-8.45.42-2.el5_9.1.x86_64.rpm
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server):
Source:
ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/enterprise/5Server/en/os/SRPMS/gdm-2.16.0-59.el5_9.1.src.rpm
ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/enterprise/5Server/en/os/SRPMS/initscripts-8.45.42-2.el5_9.1.src.rpm
i386:
gdm-2.16.0-59.el5_9.1.i386.rpm
gdm-debuginfo-2.16.0-59.el5_9.1.i386.rpm
gdm-docs-2.16.0-59.el5_9.1.i386.rpm
initscripts-8.45.42-2.el5_9.1.i386.rpm
initscripts-debuginfo-8.45.42-2.el5_9.1.i386.rpm
ia64:
gdm-2.16.0-59.el5_9.1.ia64.rpm
gdm-debuginfo-2.16.0-59.el5_9.1.ia64.rpm
gdm-docs-2.16.0-59.el5_9.1.ia64.rpm
initscripts-8.45.42-2.el5_9.1.ia64.rpm
initscripts-debuginfo-8.45.42-2.el5_9.1.ia64.rpm
ppc:
gdm-2.16.0-59.el5_9.1.ppc.rpm
gdm-debuginfo-2.16.0-59.el5_9.1.ppc.rpm
gdm-docs-2.16.0-59.el5_9.1.ppc.rpm
initscripts-8.45.42-2.el5_9.1.ppc.rpm
initscripts-debuginfo-8.45.42-2.el5_9.1.ppc.rpm
s390x:
gdm-2.16.0-59.el5_9.1.s390x.rpm
gdm-debuginfo-2.16.0-59.el5_9.1.s390x.rpm
gdm-docs-2.16.0-59.el5_9.1.s390x.rpm
initscripts-8.45.42-2.el5_9.1.s390x.rpm
initscripts-debuginfo-8.45.42-2.el5_9.1.s390x.rpm
x86_64:
gdm-2.16.0-59.el5_9.1.x86_64.rpm
gdm-debuginfo-2.16.0-59.el5_9.1.x86_64.rpm
gdm-docs-2.16.0-59.el5_9.1.x86_64.rpm
initscripts-8.45.42-2.el5_9.1.x86_64.rpm
initscripts-debuginfo-8.45.42-2.el5_9.1.x86_64.rpm
These packages are GPG signed by Red Hat for security. Our key and
details on how to verify the signature are available from
https://access.redhat.com/security/team/key/#package
7. References:
https://www.redhat.com/security/data/cve/CVE-2013-4169.html
https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#important
8. Contact:
The Red Hat security contact is <secalert@redhat.com>. More contact
details at https://access.redhat.com/security/team/contact/
Copyright 2013 Red Hat, Inc.
