RHEL 5 : kexec-tools (RHSA-2012:0152)

critical Nessus Plugin ID 58053

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Synopsis

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

Description

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 5 host has a package installed that is affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the RHSA-2012:0152 advisory.

The kexec-tools package contains the /sbin/kexec binary and utilities that together form the user-space component of the kernel's kexec feature. The /sbin/kexec binary facilitates a new kernel to boot using the kernel's kexec feature either on a normal or a panic reboot. The kexec fastboot mechanism allows booting a Linux kernel from the context of an already running kernel.

Kdump used the SSH (Secure Shell) StrictHostKeyChecking=no option when dumping to SSH targets, causing the target kdump server's SSH host key not to be checked. This could make it easier for a man-in-the-middle attacker on the local network to impersonate the kdump SSH target server and possibly gain access to sensitive information in the vmcore dumps.
(CVE-2011-3588)

The mkdumprd utility created initrd files with world-readable permissions.
A local user could possibly use this flaw to gain access to sensitive information, such as the private SSH key used to authenticate to a remote server when kdump was configured to dump to an SSH target. (CVE-2011-3589)

The mkdumprd utility included unneeded sensitive files (such as all files from the /root/.ssh/ directory and the host's private SSH keys) in the resulting initrd. This could lead to an information leak when initrd files were previously created with world-readable permissions. Note: With this update, only the SSH client configuration, known hosts files, and the SSH key configured via the newly introduced sshkey option in /etc/kdump.conf are included in the initrd. The default is the key generated when running the service kdump propagate command, /root/.ssh/kdump_id_rsa. (CVE-2011-3590)

Red Hat would like to thank Kevan Carstensen for reporting these issues.

This updated kexec-tools package also includes numerous bug fixes and enhancements. Space precludes documenting all of these changes in this advisory. Users are directed to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.8 Technical Notes, linked to in the References, for information on the most significant of these changes.

All users of kexec-tools are advised to upgrade to this updated package, which resolves these security issues, fixes these bugs and adds these enhancements.

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 affected kexec-tools package.

Plugin Details

Severity: Critical

ID: 58053

File Name: redhat-RHSA-2012-0152.nasl

Version: 1.25

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Red Hat Local Security Checks

Published: 2/21/2012

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: Low

Score: 3.6

Vendor

Vendor Severity: Moderate

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5.7

Temporal Score: 4.2

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2011-3590

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:N/I:H/A:H

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2011-3589

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:5, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kexec-tools

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: 2/21/2012

Vulnerability Publication Date: 2/15/2014

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2011-3588, CVE-2011-3589, CVE-2011-3590

BID: 50415, 50416, 50420

RHSA: 2012:0152

Detections

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