RHSA-2003:259

Vulnerability from csaf_redhat - Published: 2003-08-21 16:10 - Updated: 2025-11-21 17:26
Summary
Red Hat Security Advisory: gdm security update
Severity
Low
Notes
Topic: Updated GDM packages are available which correct a local crash if XDMCP is enabled.
Details: GDM is the GNOME Display Manager for X. Two bugs have been found in the X Display Manager Control Protocol (XDMCP) which could allow a denial of service attack (DoS) by crashing the gdm daemon. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the names CAN-2003-0548 and CAN-2003-0549 to these issues. This attack is only possible if XDMCP is enabled. XDMCP is not enabled by default in Red Hat Enterprise Linux distributions. In addition is documented best practise that XDMCP should only ever be run on trusted networks. Users of XDMCP in GDM should upgrade to these erratum packages which contain backported security fixes are are not vulnerable to these issues. Note that Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 is not vulnerable to CAN-2003-0547, a vulnerability that allows a local user to read any text file, as it did not have the "examine session errors" feature.
Terms of Use: This content is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). If you distribute this content, or a modified version of it, you must provide attribution to Red Hat Inc. and provide a link to the original.
CVE-2003-0548

The X Display Manager Control Protocol (XDMCP) support for GDM before 2.4.1.6 allows attackers to cause a denial of service (daemon crash) when a chosen host expires, a different issue than CVE-2003-0549.

Affected products
Product Identifier Version Remediation
Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS (Advanced Server) version 2.1
Red Hat / Red Hat Enterprise Linux
 cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:2.1::as —
Vendor Fix fix
Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 2.1
Red Hat / Red Hat Enterprise Linux
 cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:2.1::es —
Vendor Fix fix
Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 2.1
Red Hat / Red Hat Enterprise Linux
 cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:2.1::ws —
Vendor Fix fix
Red Hat Linux Advanced Workstation 2.1
Red Hat / Red Hat Enterprise Linux
 cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:2.1::aw —
Vendor Fix fix
Threats
Impact Low
CVE-2003-0549

The X Display Manager Control Protocol (XDMCP) support for GDM before 2.4.1.6 allows attackers to cause a denial of service (daemon crash) via a short authorization key name.

Affected products
Fixed 4 products, the same list as for CVE-2003-0548
Threats
Impact Low
References
To clipboard 

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        "text": "GDM is the GNOME Display Manager for X.\n\nTwo bugs have been found in the X Display Manager Control Protocol (XDMCP)\nwhich could allow a denial of service attack (DoS) by crashing the gdm\ndaemon. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org)\nhas assigned the names CAN-2003-0548 and CAN-2003-0549 to these issues.\n\nThis attack is only possible if XDMCP is enabled. XDMCP is not enabled by\ndefault in Red Hat Enterprise Linux distributions.  In addition is\ndocumented best practise that XDMCP should only ever be run on trusted\nnetworks.\n\nUsers of XDMCP in GDM should upgrade to these erratum packages which\ncontain backported security fixes are are not vulnerable to these issues.\n\nNote that Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 is not vulnerable to CAN-2003-0547,\na vulnerability that allows a local user to read any text file, as it did\nnot have the \"examine session errors\" feature.",
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}



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