tar security update

An updated tar package that fixes a path traversal flaw is now available.

This update has been rated as having low security impact by the Red Hat
Security Response Team.

The GNU tar program saves many files together in one archive and can
restore individual files (or all of the files) from that archive.

In 2002, a path traversal flaw was found in the way GNU tar extracted
archives. A malicious user could create a tar archive that could write to
arbitrary files to which the user running GNU tar has write access
(CVE-2002-0399). Red Hat included a backported security patch to correct
this issue in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, and an erratum for Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 2.1 users was issued.

During internal testing, we discovered that our backported security patch
contained an incorrect optimization and therefore was not sufficient to
completely correct this vulnerability. The Common Vulnerabilities and
Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) assigned the name CVE-2005-1918 to this
issue.

Users of tar should upgrade to this updated package, which contains a
replacement backported patch to correct this issue.

Before applying this update, make sure that all previously-released
errata relevant to your system have been applied. Use Red Hat
Network to download and update your packages. To launch the Red Hat
Update Agent, use the following command:

up2date

For information on how to install packages manually, refer to the
following Web page for the System Administration or Customization
guide specific to your system:

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/

140589 - CVE-2005-1918 tar archive path traversal issue
140598 - CVE-2005-1918 tar archive path traversal issue

http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2005-1918