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ESX Server 3.0.0, Patch ESX-1001205: vixe-cron Security Update

Details

Release Date: 9/6/07
Last Updated: 9/6/07

 
Download Now
Download Size:
304 KB
Download Filename:
ESX-1001205.tgz
md5sum:
e6b818cf885d5fd5f93d33b27051df83
Product Versions ESX Server 3.0.0
Patch Classification Security
Superceded By None
Virtual Machine Migration or Reboot Required No
ESX Server Host Reboot Required No
Affected Hardware N/A
Affected Software Third-party patch management or custom patch management scripts might be affected.
RPMs Updated vixie-cron-4.1-19.EL3.i386.rpm
Related CVE numbers CVE-2007-1856

Summary

This patch provides updated service console package vixie-cron fixes. Cron is a standard UNIX daemon that runs specified programs at scheduled times. A denial of service issue was found in the way vixie-cron verified crontab file integrity. A local user with the ability to create a hardlink to /etc/crontab can potentially prevent vixie-cron from executing certain system cron jobs.

Thanks to Raphael Marichez for identifying this issue.

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) assigned the name CVE-2007-1856 to this issue.

Solution

Symptoms

There are no symptoms available for the security fixes.

Impact

This patch resolves the security issue described above.

Download Instructions

Download and verify the patch bundle as follows:

  1. Download patch ESX-1001205 from http://www.vmware.com/download/vi/vi3_patches.html.
  2. Log in to the ESX Server service console as root.
  3. Create a local depot directory.

    # mkdir -p /var/updates

    Note: VMware recommends that you use the updates directory.

  4. Change your working directory to /var/updates.

    # cd /var/updates

  5. Download the tar file into the /var/updates directory.
  6. Verify the integrity of the downloaded tar file:

    # md5sum ESX-1001205.tgz

    The md5 checksum output should match the following:

    e6b818cf885d5fd5f93d33b27051df83 ESX-1001205.tgz

  7. Extract the compressed tar archive:

    # tar -xvzf ESX-1001205.tgz

  8. Change to the newly created directory, /var/updates/ESX-1001205:

    # cd ESX-1001205

Installation Instructions

After you have downloaded and extracted the archive, and if you are in the directory you created above, install the update using the following command:

# esxupdate update

To run esxupdate from a different directory, you must specify the bundle path in the command:

# esxupdate -r file://<directory>/ESX-1001205 update

For example, if the host is called depot:

# esxupdate -r file:///depot/var/updates/ESX-1001205 update

During the update process, logs appear on the terminal. You can specify the verbosity of esxupdate logs by using the -v option as shown below.

# esxupdate -v 10 file://<directory>/ESX-1001205 update

For more information on using esxupdate, refer to the Patch Management for ESX Server 3 tech note at http://www.vmware.com/pdf/esx3_esxupdate.pdf.

Keywords

esxpatch;esx300;alertz;urlz

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Actions
  • KB Article: 1001205
  • Updated: Aug 14, 2009
  • Products:
    VMware ESX
  • Product Versions:
    VMware ESX 3.0.x