4.148. postgresql84
Updated postgresql84 packages that fix one security issue are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.
The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having moderate security impact. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available from the CVE link associated with the description below.
PostgreSQL is an advanced object-relational database management system (DBMS).
Security Fix
- CVE-2011-2483
- A signedness issue was found in the way the crypt() function in the PostgreSQL pgcrypto module handled 8-bit characters in passwords when using Blowfish hashing. Up to three characters immediately preceding a non-ASCII character (one with the high bit set) had no effect on the hash result, thus shortening the effective password length. This made brute-force guessing more efficient as several different passwords were hashed to the same value.
Note
Due to the CVE-2011-2483 fix, after installing this update some users may not be able to log in to applications that store user passwords, hashed with Blowfish using the PostgreSQL crypt() function, in a back-end PostgreSQL database. Unsafe processing can be re-enabled for specific passwords (allowing affected users to log in) by changing their hash prefix to "$2x$".
These updated postgresql84 packages upgrade PostgreSQL to version 8.4.9. Refer to the PostgreSQL Release Notes for a full list of changes:
All PostgreSQL users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which correct this issue. If the postgresql service is running, it will be automatically restarted after installing this update.
