Red Hat Linux 4.1 General Errata
All Users of Red Hat 4.1 Please Read
Important Red Hat, Inc. is not releasing
security upgrades specific for this version of Red Hat Linux anymore. Users
of Red Hat Linux 4.1 should upgrade to either Red Hat Linux 4.2 or
Red Hat Linux 5.1, and apply the errata updates from
ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/updates/.
Older errata items for 4.1 are listed below.
The following are known problems with Red Hat Linux 4.1 on
multiple platforms. Updates are available for FTP from:
Please note that newer versions of some of these packages may be
available in the same location; any new versions which are made
available will fix all of the bugs older versions did, so you can use
the latest version with no problems.
We are no longer seperating the errata into general and platform specific
errata If you are unsure whether an errata update is for your system, the
following information should help:
Intel and Intel-based platform specific rpms will have the i386 extension,
Sparc rpms will have the sparc extension, and rpms for the Alpha systems
will have the alpha extension. This extension is before .rpm. For example:
foo.1.2-3.i386.rpm would be for the Intel systems
foo.1.2-3.sparc.rpm would be for Sparc systems
foo.1.2-3.alpha.rpm would be for Alpha systems
Overview
Detailed Errata
- Package: logrotate
Updated: 03-Feb-1997
Problem:
- (03-Feb-1997) logrotate-2.0.2-2 enters bogus dates
(like 1900-1-0) in its status file under certain
circumstances, and then complains about them.
logrotate-2.1-1 fixes this bug; it will not enter bogus
dates in the status file, and it silently removes any bogus
dates it finds.
Solution:
- Package: rxvt
Updated: 03-Feb-1997
Problem:
- (03-Feb-1997) rxvt-2.19-1 did not recognize the
[Alt-<] and [Alt->] keystrokes for
changing the font size. This is fixed in rxvt-2.19-2.
Solution:
- Package: sendmail
Updated: 03-Feb-1997
Problem:
- (03-Feb-1997) Security Fix: sendmail-8.8.4
has a major security hole that allows remote users to
gain root access. sendmail-8.8.5-2 fixes this security
hole.
Solution:
- Package: sliplogin
Updated: 03-Feb-1997
Problem:
- (03-Feb-1997) sliplogin was built with unnecessary
limitations and incorrect paths in its man page.
sliplogin-2.1.0-6 fixes the problem.
Note:
- sliplogin users should note that the configuration
files changed in sliplogin-2.1.0 (which first
shipped with Red Hat Linux 4.0), so users of older versions of
sliplogin (such as the version that shipped with Red Hat Linux
3.0.3) will need to rewrite their sliplogin scripts. See
/usr/doc/sliplogin-2.1.0-6/CHANGES for details.
- sliplogin is not available on Red Hat Linux/Alpha.
Solution:
Updated: 03-Feb-1997
Problem:
- (03-Feb-1997) timeconfig-1.6-1 will only run
correctly once, that is, during installation.
timeconfig-1.7-1 fixes this problem.
Solution:
- Can't boot other operating systems with LILO
Updated: 04-Feb-1997
Problem:
- (03-Feb-1997) An error in the Red Hat Linux/Intel 4.1 installation
program does not allow you to set up LILO to boot alternate
operating systems (such as MS-DOS or Microsoft Windows 95) in
addition to Red Hat Linux. However, you can set up LILO to boot
alternate operating systems after your Red Hat Linux system is
installed.
Note:
- (04-Feb-1997) If you are installing Red Hat Linux on a system along
with OS/2, see the various OS/2 mini-HOWTOs for information you need to be aware
of.
Solution:
- You can set up LILO to boot another operating system in one
of two ways:
- An automated script is available which will enable
LILO to boot MS-DOS in addition to Red Hat Linux:
ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/updates/4.1/scripts/i386/lilo-dos.sh
To use the script, download it and then execute it
as the root user:
sh lilo-dos.sh
- If you would rather configure LILO by hand, or if
you wish to boot an additional operating system other than
MS-DOS (such as Microsoft Windows 95), use the following
steps:
- Determine where your first MS-DOS (or other
operating system) partition is:
Location IDE drive SCSI drive
first partition on first hard drive /dev/hda1 /dev/sda1
second partition on first harddrive /dev/hda2 /dev/sda2
first partition on second harddrive /dev/hdb1 /dev/sdb1
etc.
- Install Red Hat Linux as normal. Configure LILO to
boot Linux from your hard drive.
- Reboot your machine and boot into Linux.
- Add the following to the end of your
/etc/lilo.conf file:
other=/dev/XXXN
label=dos
table=/dev/XXX
replacing /dev/XXXN with the partition from
Step 1, and /dev/XXX with that partition with
the number left off (e.g., /dev/hda). If you
wish, you may change the label to suit your
taste (e.g., label=win95).
- Run /sbin/lilo.
- Package: ld.so-sparc
Updated: 07-Feb-1997
Problem:
- (07-Feb-1997) /usr/include/dlfcn.h is
missing---ld.so-sparc-1.8.3-3 fixes this.
Solution:
- Package: screen (Alpha)
Updated: 14-Feb-1997
Problem:
- (14-Feb-1997) The screen package incorrectly depends
on libcrypt; screen-3.7.1-4 fixes this.
Solution:
- Package: samba
Updated: 14-Feb-1997
Problem:
- (14-Feb-1997) The smbtar and addsmbpass
programs are missing from the package. samba-1.9.16p9-7
fixes this.
- (14-Feb-1997) The samba daemons are not started in
runlevel 5. This is fixed in samba-1.9.16p9-8.
Solution:
- Package: lpr
Updated: 14-Feb-1997
Problem:
- (14-Feb-1997) lpd starts before named.
lpr-0.14-2 fixes this.
Solution:
- Package: printtool
Updated: 14-Feb-1997
Problem:
- (14-Feb-1997) printtool doesn't configure Epson
dot-matrix printers correctly. Also, printing to SMB hosts
sometimes causes erroneous output. These are fixed in
printtool-3.0-14.
Solution:
- Hard disk install fails
Updated: 17-Feb-1997
Problem:
- Installing Red Hat Linux/Intel from hard disk fails with an error
message about skeleton.cgz.
Solution:
- Intel: Use the following supplemental disk image if you're
installing from hard disk: supp.img
- Package: adduser
Updated: 24-Feb-1997
Problem:
- (18-Feb-1997) adduser-1.2 adds an extra field to
/etc/shadow, which may cause problems adding
passwords. This is fixed in adduser-1.3.
Note:
Solution:
- Package: apache
Updated: 24-Feb-1997
Problem:
- (07-Feb-1997) Security Fix: apache-1.1.3-1
fixes some security holes in apache-1.1.1. Red Hat's
default configuration for the apache httpd is not
vulnerable to these holes, but systems which customize the
configuration may be vulnerable.
- (18-Feb-1997) Security Fix
Solution:
- Package: tetex
Updated: 24-Feb-1997
Problem:
- (19-Feb-1997) tetex-0.4-7 contained errors which
occurred when non-root users tried to view dvi files and fonts
had to be created on-demand. The user would see an error
message saying they had no permission to write the font files.
tetex-0.4pl6-1 corrects file permissions to avoid this
error.
Solution:
- Package: wu-ftpd
Updated: 24-Feb-1997
Problem:
- (17-Feb-1997) Security Fix: Red Hat Linux 4.0 and Red Hat Linux 4.1
both were shipped with wu-ftpd 2.4 beta11, which has a few
important security holes, and a few minor ones. These were
fixed in wu-ftpd 2.4 beta12.
- (17-Feb-1997) The ftpcount utility gave unusual
output in the wu-ftpd-2.4.2b12-2 package. This has been
fixed in wu-ftpd-2.4.2b12-3.
- (19-Feb-1997) Unspecified fix.
Solution:
- Package: glibc (Alpha)
Updated: 24-Feb-1997
Problem:
- (18-Feb-1997) glibc-0.961212-3 did not provide
proper support for shadow passwords. glibc-0.961212-4
fixes this.
Solution:
- Package: ypbind (Alpha)
Updated: 24-Feb-1997
Problem:
- (19-Feb-1997) ypbind is needed for proper NIS
support on Linux/Alpha.
Note:
- (19-Feb-1997) Make sure to set up the
/etc/nsswitch.conf configuration file appropriately
(see the NIS-HOWTO for mor
information).
Solution:
- Package: amd (Alpha)
Updated: 26-Feb-1997
Problem:
- (26-Feb-1997) amd hangs during startup on some
Linux/Alpha systems, causing some systems to be unable to boot.
Note:
- (26-Feb-1997) If you cannot get your system to boot because
of this problem, add single to the end of the
MILO command you are using to boot the system. This
will boot your system into single-user mode without networking.
From there, remove the amd package using:
rpm -e amd
and reboot normally. When the system boots up in normal mode you
can install the new amd package.
Solution:
- Install reboots while upgrading MAKEDEV (Alpha)
Updated: 26-Feb-1997
Problem:
- (26-Feb-1997) Many people have seen their systems reboot
immediately after installing MAKEDEV when upgrading from Red
Hat 4.0/Alpha to Red Hat 4.1/Alpha. The following ramdisk image
should fix this problem.
Note:
- (26-Feb-1997) You'll need to boot from floppies in order
for this to work; otherwise, the old ramdisk image will be read
from the CD.
Solution:
- Package: jed
Updated: 26-Feb-1997
Problem:
- (26-Feb-1997) jed-0.97.14-3 was missing a small
bugfix from the author. Also, xjed didn't recognize
the keysyms generated by the numeric keypad without NumLock on
under XFree86-3.2. jed-0.97.14-4 fixes both of these
problems.
Note:
Solution:
- Package: imap
Updated: 03-Mar-1997
Problem:
- (03-Mar-1997) Security Fix: The IMAP servers
included with all versions of Red Hat Linux have a buffer
overrun which allow remote users to gain root access on
systems which run them. imap-4.1.BETA-3 closes this
security hole.
Solution:
- Package: gdb (Alpha)
Updated: 03-Mar-1997
Problem:
- (03-Mar-1997) gdb doesn't debug shared libraries
properly. gdb-4.16-6 fixes this problem.
Solution:
- Install fails with some SCSI adaptors
Updated: 07-Mar-1997
Problem:
- (06-Mar-1997) Some SCSI adapter drivers do not work as
modules. If you are installing Red Hat Linux on a system with one of
these SCSI adapters, you will need to take a few extra steps
during the installation.
Solution:
- Package: tmpwatch (Alpha)
Updated: 10-Mar-1997
Problem:
- (10-Mar-1997) tmpwatch is missing execute
permissions; fixed in tmpwatch-1.1-2.
Solution:
- Correction: Module Parameters
Updated: 12-Mar-1997
Problem:
- (26-Feb-1997) The Red Hat Linux 4.1 User's Guide, Appendix B:
Module Parameters lists some incorrect module
parameters, while other module parameters are missing.
- (12-Mar-1997) The spbcd module parameters need to
be numeric; see correction below.
Correction:
- For the Sony CDU31a CD-ROM, the I/O address argument is
cdu31a_port (not cdu31a), and the IRQ
argument is cdu31a_irq;
- For the Adaptec 154x SCSI adaptor, the I/O address
argument is bases.
- For the spbcd driver, use the following:
sbpcd=base_address,sb_pro_setting
where base_address is the base address of the CD-ROM
(e.g., 0x230), and sb_pro_setting is one of
the following numeric settings:
0 (for LaserMate)
1 (for SoundBlaster)
2 (for SoundScape)
3 (for Teac16bit)
- For the Seagate module, which drives Seagate ST0x and
Future Domain TMC8xx and TMC9xx SCSI adaptors, use these
arguments:
controller_type=type
base_address=shmemaddr
irq=irq
where:
type is 1 for Seagate, or
2 for Future Domain;
shmemaddr is the address of the shared memory
segment (for example, 0xCA000);
and irq is the number of the IRQ line.
- Packages: dosemu,xdosemu
Updated: 12-Mar-1997
Problem:
- (07-Mar-1997) dosemu failed to work with an
unmodified Linux-2.0.27 kernel. Fixed in
dosemu-0.64.1-2 and xdosemu-0.64.1-2.
- (12-Mar-1997) dosemu did not lock serial ports
correctly. Fixed in dosemu-0.64.1-3.
Solution:
- Some installs fail with 8MB of RAM
Updated: 14-Mar-1997
Problem:
- (14-Mar-1997) If you have 8MB of RAM on a machine and are
attempting an FTP, Hard Drive, or PCMCIA
install, the installation system sometimes sets up the
supplemental diskette improperly, causing the install to hang.
Solution:
- You can work around this behavior by telling the system you
have only 7MB of RAM during the install, forcing it to be a bit
more conservative in the way it allocates memory. Boot using
the boot diskette, and enter the following at the LILO prompt:
boot: linux mem=7M
- Package: efax
Updated: 23-Mar-1997
Problem:
- (23-Mar-1997) A missing double quote caused efax
to break. Fixed in efax-0.8a-2.
Solution:
- Package: cmu-snmp
Updated: 23-Mar-1997
Problem:
- (23-Mar-1997) Security Fix: The SNMP services in
cmu-snmp are misconfigured and allow all remote systems
read access to networking information machines which are
running snmpd. It is also straightforward to gain
write access to networking information due to these
misconfigurations, which enables simple denial of service
attacks. Fixed in cmu-snmp-3.3-1.
Note:
- (23-Mar-1997) New versions of cmu-snmp-devel and
cmu-snmp-tools are available for completeness. They do
not need to be installed to fix this problem; only the main
cmu-snmp package is necessary.
Solution:
- Package: inn
Updated: 02-Apr-1997
Problem:
- (19-Feb-1997) Security Fix: inn-1.5.1-3
contains an important security fix.
- (26-Feb-1997) inn-1.5.1-3 continues to have
miscellaneous problems which inn-1.5.1-5 fixes.
- (02-Apr-1997) Security Fix: inn contains a
critical security hole; this hole is closed in
inn-1.5.1-6.
Note:
- (26-Feb-1997) If you're upgrading from inn-1.4 to
inn-1.5.1-5, make sure you have the `to' group in
/var/lib/news/active or things won't work. Thanks to
Elliot Lee and James Youngman for help on this package.
Solution:
- Package: Can't find driver for 3c900/3c905
Updated: 02-Apr-1997
Problem:
- (02-Apr-1997) Red Hat Linux/Intel supports the 3com 3c900 and
3c905 ethernet cards; however, a driver for those cards doesn't
appear to be available at install time.
Solution:
- (02-Apr-1997) Actually, the driver for the 3c900 and 3c905
ethernet cards is the same driver used for the 3c595; simply
choose the 3c59x driver.
- Packages: usercfg, pythonlib, netcfg, initscripts
Updated: 03-Apr-1997
Problem:
Note:
- (05-Mar-1997) netcfg, pythonlib, initscripts:
IMPORTANT: If you are currently using PAP or CHAP to
authenticate connections made by an interface managed by
netcfg (that is, which uses the
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-ppp script), you
will need to modify your /etc/ppp/pap-secrets or
/etc/ppp/chap-secrets file to take into account that
the remotename on a connection will always be the logical
interface name: for example, for the interface described by the
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ppp0 file, the
remotename will always be `ppp0', and not the name
provided by the remote end of the connection. This change was
necessary to support PAP authentication through netcfg
(CHAP may be added to netcfg later).
Solution:
- Package: amd
Updated: 09-Apr-1997
Problem:
- (09-Apr-1997) Security Fix: amd doesn't
handle the nodev option properly, creating potential
security problems. amd-920824upl102-8 fixes this
problem.
Solution:
- Package: perl
Updated: 24-Apr-1997
Problem:
- (24-Apr-1997) Security Fix: There is a critical
security hole in perl (specifically /usr/bin/sperl); a
new version, perl-5.003-8, is now available which closes
this security hole.
Solution:
- Packages: NetKit-B, util-linux, passwd
Updated: 25-Apr-1997
Problem:
- (03-Feb-1997) NetKit-B: Security Fix:
NetKit-B-0.08-13 allowed external users to tell whether
or not a username existed on a system by using the
rlogin protocol. This is fixed in
NetKit-B-0.08-14.
- (07-Mar-1997) util-linux: login (and
telnet, since it uses login) allowed remote
users to determine whether a user existed on a system. This
has been fixed in util-linux-2.5-34
- (24-Mar-1997) NetKit-B: Security Fix: There
is a small security hole in the in.tftpd daemon which
allows remote users to read all files on systems which run tftp
from inetd, even if the server is supposed to be run
with a restricted directory path (note that all versions of Red
Hat have tftp support off by default). NetKit-B-0.09-1
includes a patch to fix this problem.
- (25-Apr-1997) NetKit-B, util-linux, passwd: There
have been various utmp problems on all platforms with
Red Hat Linux 4.1 (most notably the Alpha). NetKit-B-0.09-1.1,
util-linux-2.5-34.1, and passwd-0.50-2.1 should
fix this problem.
Solution:
- Package: rpm
Updated: 28-Apr-1997
Problem:
- (03-Feb-1997) rpm-2.3-1 does not run ``verify scripts''
correctly. rpm-2.3.2-1 fixes this problem.
- (28-Apr-1997) Versions of rpm prior to 2.3.10 use
md5 signatures which don't work exactly as they ought to;
rpm-2.3.10-1 fixes this.
As a consequence of this, rpm-2.3.9 or earlier will complain
about an improper signature on packages built with rpm-2.3.10
or later. However, for PGP-signed packages, as long as the
``pgp'' report from --checksig (-K)
is in lower case, the PGP signature has verified properly.
Solution:
- Package: metamail
Updated: 28-Apr-1997
Problem:
- (28-Apr-1997) Security Fix: There is a security hole
in metamail which affects all versions of Red Hat Linux.
metamail-2.7-7 closes this security hole.
Note:
- (28-Apr-1997) Versions of rpm prior to 2.3.10 will
complain about an improper signature on this packages. As long
as the ``pgp'' report from --checksig
(-K) is in lower case, the PGP signature has verified
properly. We suggest upgrading to rpm-2.3.10 to avoid
this problem in the future.
Solution:
- Package: elm
Updated: 15-May-1997
Problem:
- (15-May-1997) Security Fix: The version of
elm shipped with all releases of Red Hat Linux has a
security vulnerability which allows users on systems to
read, delete, and forge other users' mail by gaining access
to the mail group. elm-2.4.25-8 fixes this
vulnerability.
Solution:
- Can't mount BackPack CD-ROM
Updated: 10-Jun-1997
Problem:
- (10-Jun-1997) Users who install Red Hat Linux/Intel 4.1 from a
BackPack CD-ROM may find they can't mount the CD-ROM. This
is because no /dev/bpcd device exists.
Solution:
- (10-Jun-1997) Until a fix is available, users can
manually create a /dev/bpcd device using the
following commands:
su
mknod /dev/bpcd b 41 0
chown root:disk /dev/bpcd
chmod 660 /dev/bpcd
Users can then mount the BackPack CD-ROM using:
mount -t iso9660 /dev/bpcd /cdrom
or by adding an entry to /etc/fstab using the
Filesystem Configuration tool from the Control Panel.
- Packages: XFree86, X11R6.1
Updated: 20-Jun-1997
Problem:
- (18-Feb-1997) xdm was having trouble setting
proper paths and reading shell initalization files
properly. Also, shadow passwords didn't work with
xdm on Linux/Alpha.
- (29-May-1997) Security Fix: A buffer overflow has
been found in one of the X11 libraries, allowing local
users to gain unathorized root access to a system through
any setuid root application linked against libX11. This
problem affects all Red Hat Linux machines with X Windows
installed.
Applications which are dynamically linked may be fixed
by upgrading to the X...-libs package appropriate
for your architecture.
If you have any statically linked setuid X programs you
must recompile them against the new libX11.a
contained in the X...-devel package for your
architecture. Red Hat Linux does not include any statically linked
X applications, so this only a problem if you've hand
installed statically linked setuid applications (we don't
know of any applications likely to be installed in this
configuration).
- (05-Jun-1997) Security Fix: More buffer overflows
have been found in one of the X11 libraries, allowing local
users to gain unathorized root access to a system through
any setuid root application linked against libX11. This
problem affects all Red Hat Linux machine with X Windows
installed.
Applications which are dynamically linked may be fixed
by upgrading to the X...-libs X package
appropriate for your architecture.
If you have any statically linked setuid X programs you
must recompile them against the new libX11.a
contained in the X...-devel package for your
architecture. Red Hat Linux does not include any statically
linked X applications so this only a problem if you've hand
installed statically linked setuid applications (we don't
know of any applications likely to be installed in this
configuration).
- (05-Jun-1997) Coinciding with today's announcement of
XFree86-3.3 (see http://www.xfree86.org for
details), Red Hat, Inc. is making available XFree86-3.3
RPMs for Intel and Alpha platforms.
The packaging is identical to that used for XFree86-3.2
on Red Hat Linux 4.2 and similiar to the packaging used for Red Hat Linux
4.1; users of either release should have little trouble
upgrading to XFree86-3.3.
Note:
- (29-May-1997) The upcoming release of XFree86-3.3 is not
vulnerable to this problem; users may safely install
release 3.3 once it is available. The XFree86-3.2A beta
release, however, is vulnerable.
- (11-Jun-1997) Metro-X Users: XFree86-3.3 uses
fonts which are compressed with gzip by default.
Red Hat Linux/Intel users who use MetroLink's Metro-X server will
have difficulty using Metro-X with XFree86-3.3, since
Metro-X cannot read gzipped fonts. Until an
update of Metro-X is available that can read
gzipped fonts, you can use the following
commands to allow Metro-X to read the fonts in the
XFree86-3.3 package:
su
cd /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts
gunzip */*.gz
compress */*.pcf
mkfontdir *
You may need to make sure the ncompress package is
installed in order to use the compress command.
Solution:
- Package: svgalib
Updated: 27-Jun-1997
Problem:
- (27-Jun-1997) Security Fix: A major security problem
has been found in the svgalib library. This problem
affects all releases of Red Hat Linux on Intel platforms.
svgalib-1.2.10-3 fixes this security hole.
Solution:
- Package: ld.so
Updated: 18-Jul-1997
Problem:
- (18-Jul-1997) Security Fix: There is a buffer
overflow in Linux's ELF program loader on Intel and SPARC
platforms. New versions of the ld.so and
ld.so-sparc packages are available which fix the
problem.
Solution:
- Package: bind
Updated: 21-Jul-1997
Problem:
- (10-Mar-1997) Security Fix: There is a possibility
for a denial of service attack in bind-4.9.5 which
allows users to render nameservers inoperative.
bind-4.9.5p1-1 includes a patch to fix this
behaviour.
- (21-Jul-1997) Security Fix: Version 4.9.6 of the
bind DNS name server is now available. It fixes
security vulnerabilities which allowed third parties to
alter DNS queries from previous versions of the name
server. All Red Hat Linux systems running bind are
vulnerable to this problem.
Solution: