RHEL 4 : python (RHSA-2011:0491)

high Nessus Plugin ID 53820

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Synopsis

The remote Red Hat host is missing one or more security updates for python.

Description

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 4 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the RHSA-2011:0491 advisory.

Python is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language.

A flaw was found in the Python urllib and urllib2 libraries where they would not differentiate between different target URLs when handling automatic redirects. This caused Python applications using these modules to follow any new URL that they understood, including the file:// URL type.
This could allow a remote server to force a local Python application to read a local file instead of the remote one, possibly exposing local files that were not meant to be exposed. (CVE-2011-1521)

Multiple flaws were found in the Python audioop module. Supplying certain inputs could cause the audioop module to crash or, possibly, execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2010-1634, CVE-2010-2089)

A race condition was found in the way the Python smtpd module handled new connections. A remote user could use this flaw to cause a Python script using the smtpd module to terminate. (CVE-2010-3493)

An information disclosure flaw was found in the way the Python CGIHTTPServer module processed certain HTTP GET requests. A remote attacker could use a specially-crafted request to obtain the CGI script's source code. (CVE-2011-1015)

A buffer over-read flaw was found in the way the Python Expat parser handled malformed UTF-8 sequences when processing XML files. A specially-crafted XML file could cause Python applications using the Python Expat parser to crash while parsing the file. (CVE-2009-3720)

This update makes Python use the system Expat library rather than its own internal copy; therefore, users must have the version of Expat shipped with RHSA-2009:1625 installed, or a later version, to resolve the CVE-2009-3720 issue.

All Python users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues.

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

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

Solution

Update the RHEL python package based on the guidance in RHSA-2011:0491.

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 53820

File Name: redhat-RHSA-2011-0491.nasl

Version: 1.23

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Red Hat Local Security Checks

Published: 5/6/2011

Updated: 3/21/2025

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: Moderate

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.4

Temporal Score: 5

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2011-1521

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.5

Temporal Score: 6.7

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

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2009-3720

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:tkinter, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:4, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:python-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:python-tools, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:python, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:python-docs

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

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 5/5/2011

Vulnerability Publication Date: 11/3/2009

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2009-3720, CVE-2010-1634, CVE-2010-2089, CVE-2010-3493, CVE-2011-1015, CVE-2011-1521

BID: 36097, 40370, 40863, 44533, 46541, 47024

CWE: 190

RHSA: 2011:0491

Detections

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