RHEL 4 / 5 / 6 : postgresql (RHSA-2011:1377)

critical Nessus Plugin ID 56533

Synopsis

The remote Red Hat host is missing a security update for postgresql.

Description

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 4 / 5 / 6 host has packages installed that are affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the RHSA-2011:1377 advisory.

PostgreSQL is an advanced object-relational database management system (DBMS).

A signedness issue was found in the way the crypt() function in the PostgreSQL pgcrypto module handled 8-bit characters in passwords when using Blowfish hashing. Up to three characters immediately preceding a non-ASCII character (one with the high bit set) had no effect on the hash result, thus shortening the effective password length. This made brute-force guessing more efficient as several different passwords were hashed to the same value. (CVE-2011-2483)

Note: Due to the CVE-2011-2483 fix, after installing this update some users may not be able to log in to applications that store user passwords, hashed with Blowfish using the PostgreSQL crypt() function, in a back-end PostgreSQL database. Unsafe processing can be re-enabled for specific passwords (allowing affected users to log in) by changing their hash prefix to $2x$.

For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, the updated postgresql packages upgrade PostgreSQL to version 8.4.9. Refer to the PostgreSQL Release Notes for a full list of changes:

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.4/static/release.html

For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and 5, the updated postgresql packages contain a backported patch.

All PostgreSQL users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which correct this issue. If the postgresql service is running, it will be automatically restarted after installing this update.

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 postgresql package based on the guidance in RHSA-2011:1377.

See Also

http://www.nessus.org/u?d98acef1

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.4/static/release.html

https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#moderate

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=715025

https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2011:1377

Plugin Details

Severity: Critical

ID: 56533

File Name: redhat-RHSA-2011-1377.nasl

Version: 1.20

Type: local

Agent: unix

Published: 10/18/2011

Updated: 11/4/2024

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

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: High

Score: 7.3

Vendor

Vendor Severity: Moderate

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5

Temporal Score: 3.7

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2011-2483

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 10

Temporal Score: 8.7

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

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

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:postgresql-tcl, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:postgresql-contrib, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:postgresql-test, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:5, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:postgresql-jdbc, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:postgresql-plpython, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:postgresql-docs, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:postgresql-libs, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:postgresql-python, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:6, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:postgresql, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:postgresql-devel, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:4, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:postgresql-pl, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:postgresql-pltcl, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:postgresql-server, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:postgresql-plperl

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: 10/17/2011

Vulnerability Publication Date: 8/25/2011

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2011-2483

BID: 49241

RHSA: 2011:1377