Detections
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RHEL 5 : gdm (RHSA-2009:1364)
medium Nessus Plugin ID 40840
Synopsis
The remote Red Hat host is missing one or more security updates.Description
Updated gdm packages that fix a security issue and several bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.This update has been rated as having low security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.
The GNOME Display Manager (GDM) is a configurable re-implementation of XDM, the X Display Manager. GDM allows you to log in to your system with the X Window System running, and supports running several different X sessions on your local machine at the same time.
A flaw was found in the way the gdm package was built. The gdm package was missing TCP wrappers support, which could result in an administrator believing they had access restrictions enabled when they did not. (CVE-2009-2697)
This update also fixes the following bugs :
* the GDM Reference Manual is now included with the gdm packages. The gdm-docs package installs this document in HTML format in '/usr/share/doc/'. (BZ#196054)
* GDM appeared in English on systems using Telugu (te_IN). With this update, GDM has been localized in te_IN. (BZ#226931)
* the Ctrl+Alt+Backspace sequence resets the X server when in runlevel 5. In previous releases, however, repeated use of this sequence prevented GDM from starting the X server as part of the reset process.
This was because GDM sometimes did not notice the X server shutdown properly and would subsequently fail to complete the reset process.
This update contains an added check to explicitly notify GDM whenever the X server is terminated, ensuring that resets are executed reliably. (BZ#441971)
* the 'gdm' user is now part of the 'audio' group by default. This enables audio support at the login screen. (BZ#458331)
* the gui/modules/dwellmouselistener.c source code contained incorrect XInput code that prevented tablet devices from working properly. This update removes the errant code, ensuring that tablet devices work as expected. (BZ#473262)
* a bug in the XOpenDevice() function prevented the X server from starting whenever a device defined in '/etc/X11/xorg.conf' was not actually plugged in. This update wraps XOpenDevice() in the gdk_error_trap_pop() and gdk_error_trap_push() functions, which resolves this bug. This ensures that the X server can start properly even when devices defined in '/etc/X11/xorg.conf' are not plugged in.
(BZ#474588)
All users should upgrade to these updated packages, which resolve these issues. GDM must be restarted for this update to take effect.
Rebooting achieves this, but changing the runlevel from 5 to 3 and back to 5 also restarts GDM.
Solution
Update the affected gdm and / or gdm-docs packages.See Also
Plugin Details
Severity: Medium
ID: 40840
File Name: redhat-RHSA-2009-1364.nasl
Version: 1.23
Type: local
Agent: unix
Family: Red Hat Local Security Checks
Published: 9/2/2009
Updated: 1/14/2021
Supported Sensors: Agentless Assessment, Continuous Assessment, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Nessus Agent, Nessus
Risk Information
VPR
Risk Factor: Medium
Score: 5.2
CVSS v2
Risk Factor: Medium
Base Score: 6.8
Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
Vulnerability Information
CPE: p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:gdm-docs, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:5, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:gdm
Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/RedHat/release, Host/RedHat/rpm-list, Host/cpu
Patch Publication Date: 9/2/2009
Vulnerability Publication Date: 9/4/2009
Reference Information
CVE: CVE-2009-2697