RHEL 5 : nfs-utils (RHSA-2009:1321)

critical Nessus Plugin ID 40838

Synopsis

The remote Red Hat host is missing a security update for nfs-utils.

Description

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 5 host has a package installed that is affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the RHSA-2009:1321 advisory.

The nfs-utils package provides a daemon for the kernel NFS server and related tools.

It was discovered that nfs-utils did not use tcp_wrappers correctly.
Certain hosts access rules defined in /etc/hosts.allow and /etc/hosts.deny may not have been honored, possibly allowing remote attackers to bypass intended access restrictions. (CVE-2008-4552)

This updated package also fixes the following bugs:

* the LOCKD_TCPPORT and LOCKD_UDPPORT options in /etc/sysconfig/nfs were not honored: the lockd daemon continued to use random ports. With this update, these options are honored. (BZ#434795)

* it was not possible to mount NFS file systems from a system that has the /etc/ directory mounted on a read-only file system (this could occur on systems with an NFS-mounted root file system). With this update, it is possible to mount NFS file systems from a system that has /etc/ mounted on a read-only file system. (BZ#450646)

* arguments specified by STATDARG= in /etc/sysconfig/nfs were removed by the nfslock init script, meaning the arguments specified were never passed to rpc.statd. With this update, the nfslock init script no longer removes these arguments. (BZ#459591)

* when mounting an NFS file system from a host not specified in the NFS server's /etc/exports file, a misleading unknown host error was logged on the server (the hostname lookup did not fail). With this update, a clearer error message is provided for these situations. (BZ#463578)

* the nhfsstone benchmark utility did not work with NFS version 3 and 4.
This update adds support to nhfsstone for NFS version 3 and 4. The new nhfsstone -2, -3, and -4 options are used to select an NFS version (similar to nfsstat(8)). (BZ#465933)

* the exportfs(8) manual page contained a spelling mistake, djando, in the EXAMPLES section. (BZ#474848)

* in some situations the NFS server incorrectly refused mounts to hosts that had a host alias in a NIS netgroup. (BZ#478952)

* in some situations the NFS client used its cache, rather than using the latest version of a file or directory from a given export. This update adds a new mount option, lookupcache=, which allows the NFS client to control how it caches files and directories. Note: The Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 kernel update (the fourth regular update) must be installed in order to use the lookupcache= option. Also, lookupcache= is currently only available for NFS version 3. Support for NFS version 4 may be introduced in future Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 updates. Refer to Red Hat Bugzilla #511312 for further information. (BZ#489335)

Users of nfs-utils should upgrade to this updated package, which contains backported patches to correct these issues. After installing this update, the nfs service will be restarted automatically.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Update the RHEL nfs-utils package based on the guidance in RHSA-2009:1321.

Plugin Details

Severity: Critical

ID: 40838

File Name: redhat-RHSA-2009-1321.nasl

Version: 1.25

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Red Hat Local Security Checks

Published: 9/2/2009

Updated: 3/20/2025

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Continuous Assessment, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 5.2

Vendor

Vendor Severity: Low

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.5

Temporal Score: 5.5

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2008-4552

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 9.1

Temporal Score: 7.9

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nfs-utils, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:5

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/RedHat/release, Host/RedHat/rpm-list, Host/cpu

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 9/2/2009

Vulnerability Publication Date: 10/14/2008

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2008-4552

BID: 31823

RHSA: 2009:1321

Detections

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