- Issued:
- 2004-09-02
- Updated:
- 2004-09-02
RHEA-2004:347 - Product Enhancement Advisory
Synopsis
Updated pam packages
Type/Severity
Product Enhancement Advisory
Topic
Updated pam packages that add the ability to recognize the "unlimited"
parameter to the pam_limits module are now available for Red Hat Enterprise
Linux 3.
Description
PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) is a system security tool that
allows system administrators to set authentication policies without having
to recompile programs that handle authentication.
The pam_limits module is used to set per process resource usage limits
during login. The pam_limits module is configured by editing the
/etc/security/limits.conf configuration file. The module now recognizes
the parameter "unlimited" as an indicator that a specific limit should be
set as high as possible.
All users of pam should upgrade to these updated packages, which resolve
this issue.
Solution
Before applying this update, make sure all previously released errata
relevant to your system have been applied.
To update all RPMs for your particular architecture, run:
rpm -Fvh [filenames]
where [filenames] is a list of the RPMs you wish to upgrade. Only those
RPMs which are currently installed will be updated. Those RPMs which are
not installed but included in the list will not be updated. Note that you
can also use wildcards (*.rpm) if your current directory *only* contains the
desired RPMs.
Please note that this update is also available via Red Hat Network. Many
people find this an easier way to apply updates. To use Red Hat Network,
launch the Red Hat Update Agent with the following command:
up2date
This will start an interactive process that will result in the appropriate
RPMs being upgraded on your system.
If up2date fails to connect to Red Hat Network due to SSL
Certificate Errors, you need to install a version of the
up2date client with an updated certificate. The latest version of
up2date is available from the Red Hat FTP site and may also be
downloaded directly from the RHN website:
Affected Products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 3 x86_64
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 3 ia64
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 3 i386
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 3 x86_64
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 3 ia64
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 3 i386
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 3 x86_64
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 3 i386
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 3 s390x
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 3 s390
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 3 ppc
Fixes
- BZ - 116133 - pam_limits.so does not pick up unlimited settings
CVEs
(none)
References
(none)
The Red Hat security contact is secalert@redhat.com. More contact details at https://access.redhat.com/security/team/contact/.