Security bugfix for package Apache

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(Last modified: 19JUN2002)

solutions Security bugfix for package Apache SuSE Linux Maintenance Web (5c07dee804dd971217d00b385e8c6a6c)

Applies to

Product(s): SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 7 for IBM zSeries
SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 7 for PowerPC
SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 7 for IA32
SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 7 for IA64
SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 7 for S/390 and zSeries
SuSE Linux Connectivity Server

Package: apache
mod_ssl
Release: 20020619
Obsoletes: none

Indications

Everyone using the Apache web server should install this security bugfix.

Contraindications

None.

Problem description

There is a bug in the way the Apache web server handles HTTP requests that use "chunked mode". Chunked mode is a HTTP 1.1 feature that allows a client to send data as a sequence of chunks rather than en bloc. This is useful if it doesn't know the overall length of the content at the time it starts transmitting.
Previous versions of the Apache web server did not properly detect incorrectly encoded chunks, which caused a buffer overflow on the stack. On 32bit architectures, this overflow cannot be exploited to inject code into the httpd process and gain access to the machine, because the overflow will always result in a segmentation fault and the process will terminate.
On 64bit architectures, it may be possible for an attacker to a exploit the buffer overflow to execute arbitary code with the privileges of the httpd process (user wwwrun on SuSE Linux.)
For additional information, please refer to
http://httpd.apache.org/info/security_bulletin_20020617.txt

Solution

Please install the updates provided at the location noted below.

Installation notes

This update is provided as an RPM package that can easily be installed onto a running system by using this command:
rpm --nodeps -Fvh apache.rpm mod_ssl.rpm
If you have modified the configuration file /etc/httpd/httpd.conf, upgrading will backup this file to /etc/httpd/httpd.conf.rpmsave. If this is the case, make sure to restore this backup file. Finally, restart the web server using
/usr/sbin/rcapache restart

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