RHSA-2007:0465: pam security and bug fix update (Moderate)
Description:
Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) provide a system whereby administrators can set up authentication policies without having to recompile programs that handle authentication.
A flaw was found in the way the Linux kernel handled certain SG_IO commands. Console users with access to certain device files had the ability to damage recordable CD drives. The way pam_console handled permissions of these files has been modified to disallow access. This change also required modifications to the cdrecord application. (CVE-2004-0813)
A flaw was found in the way pam_console set console device permissions. It was possible for various console devices to retain ownership of the console user after logging out, possibly leaking information to an unauthorized user. (CVE-2007-1716)
The pam_unix module provides authentication against standard /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow files. The pam_stack module provides support for stacking PAM configuration files. Both of these modules contained small memory leaks which caused problems in applications calling PAM authentication repeatedly in the same process.
All users of PAM should upgrade to these updated packages, which resolve these issues.