- Issued:
- 2004-12-20
- Updated:
- 2004-12-20
RHBA-2004:472 - Bug Fix Advisory
Synopsis
Updated shadow-utils package
Type/Severity
Bug Fix Advisory
Topic
An updated shadow-utils package that fixes bugs in lastlog and useradd is now
available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.
Description
The shadow-utils package includes the necessary programs for converting
UNIX password files to the shadow password format, as well as programs for
managing user and group accounts. The pwconv command converts passwords to
the shadow password format. The pwunconv command unconverts shadow
passwords and generates an npasswd file (a standard UNIX password file).
The pwck command checks the integrity of password and shadow files. The
lastlog command prints out the last login times for all users. The useradd,
userdel, and usermod commands are used for managing user accounts. The
groupadd, groupdel, and groupmod commands are used for managing group accounts.
These updates fix a bug in the lastlog command which prevented
administrators from viewing lastlog entries for users with very high UIDs.
When entries were read from the /var/log/lastlog file, the lastlog command
calculated the location of the entry corresponding either to a specific
user or every known user to the system. When the system attempted to seek
to a portion of a large file, it resulted in an error.
Other utilities from the shadow-utils package, including useradd, have
added restrictions on user and group names, compared to the shadow-utils
version in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1. The useradd command did not
properly unlock the user and group database files on exit. This has been fixed.
All users of shadow-utils should upgrade to this updated package, which
resolves these issues.
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 - 115383 - RHEL3 U4: Unable to handle '.' in usernames (name.lastname)
- BZ - 121397 - RHEL3 U4: Uppercase Not Allowed by useradd
- BZ - 125445 - RHEL3_U4 [PATCH] lastlog file truncating at 4gb?
- BZ - 126709 - [PATCH]passwd.lock and group.lock file is never removed after using the command useradd
CVEs
(none)
References
(none)
The Red Hat security contact is secalert@redhat.com. More contact details at https://access.redhat.com/security/team/contact/.