Synopsis:    Moderate: postgresql84 security update
Issue Date:  2011-10-17
CVE Numbers: CVE-2011-2483


PostgreSQL is an advanced object-relational database management system
(DBMS).

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. (CVE-2011-2483)

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:

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.4/static/release.html

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.

SL5:
  i386
     postgresql84-8.4.9-1.el5_7.1.i386.rpm
     postgresql84-contrib-8.4.9-1.el5_7.1.i386.rpm
     postgresql84-debuginfo-8.4.9-1.el5_7.1.i386.rpm
     postgresql84-devel-8.4.9-1.el5_7.1.i386.rpm
     postgresql84-docs-8.4.9-1.el5_7.1.i386.rpm
     postgresql84-libs-8.4.9-1.el5_7.1.i386.rpm
     postgresql84-plperl-8.4.9-1.el5_7.1.i386.rpm
     postgresql84-plpython-8.4.9-1.el5_7.1.i386.rpm
     postgresql84-pltcl-8.4.9-1.el5_7.1.i386.rpm
     postgresql84-python-8.4.9-1.el5_7.1.i386.rpm
     postgresql84-server-8.4.9-1.el5_7.1.i386.rpm
     postgresql84-tcl-8.4.9-1.el5_7.1.i386.rpm
     postgresql84-test-8.4.9-1.el5_7.1.i386.rpm
  x86_64
     postgresql84-8.4.9-1.el5_7.1.x86_64.rpm
     postgresql84-contrib-8.4.9-1.el5_7.1.x86_64.rpm
     postgresql84-debuginfo-8.4.9-1.el5_7.1.i386.rpm
     postgresql84-debuginfo-8.4.9-1.el5_7.1.x86_64.rpm
     postgresql84-devel-8.4.9-1.el5_7.1.i386.rpm
     postgresql84-devel-8.4.9-1.el5_7.1.x86_64.rpm
     postgresql84-docs-8.4.9-1.el5_7.1.x86_64.rpm
     postgresql84-libs-8.4.9-1.el5_7.1.i386.rpm
     postgresql84-libs-8.4.9-1.el5_7.1.x86_64.rpm
     postgresql84-plperl-8.4.9-1.el5_7.1.x86_64.rpm
     postgresql84-plpython-8.4.9-1.el5_7.1.x86_64.rpm
     postgresql84-pltcl-8.4.9-1.el5_7.1.x86_64.rpm
     postgresql84-python-8.4.9-1.el5_7.1.x86_64.rpm
     postgresql84-server-8.4.9-1.el5_7.1.x86_64.rpm
     postgresql84-tcl-8.4.9-1.el5_7.1.x86_64.rpm
     postgresql84-test-8.4.9-1.el5_7.1.x86_64.rpm

- Scientific Linux Development Team