RHEL 7 : mod_wsgi (RHSA-2014:1091)

critical Nessus Plugin ID 77386

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Synopsis

The remote Red Hat host is missing a security update for mod_wsgi.

Description

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 7 host has a package installed that is affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the RHSA-2014:1091 advisory.

The mod_wsgi adapter is an Apache module that provides a WSGI-compliant interface for hosting Python-based web applications within Apache.

It was found that mod_wsgi did not properly drop privileges if the call to setuid() failed. If mod_wsgi was set up to allow unprivileged users to run WSGI applications, a local user able to run a WSGI application could possibly use this flaw to escalate their privileges on the system.
(CVE-2014-0240)

Note: mod_wsgi is not intended to provide privilege separation for WSGI applications. Systems relying on mod_wsgi to limit or sandbox the privileges of mod_wsgi applications should migrate to a different solution with proper privilege separation.

Red Hat would like to thank Graham Dumpleton for reporting this issue.
Upstream acknowledges Rbert Kisteleki as the original reporter.

All mod_wsgi users are advised to upgrade to this updated package, which contains a backported patch to correct this issue.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Update the RHEL mod_wsgi package based on the guidance in RHSA-2014:1091.

Plugin Details

Severity: Critical

ID: 77386

File Name: redhat-RHSA-2014-1091.nasl

Version: 1.16

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Red Hat Local Security Checks

Published: 8/26/2014

Updated: 4/15/2025

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Continuous Assessment, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 5.9

Vendor

Vendor Severity: Important

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.2

Temporal Score: 4.6

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:H/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2014-0240

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 9.8

Temporal Score: 8.5

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:mod_wsgi

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/RedHat/release, Host/RedHat/rpm-list, Host/cpu

Patch Publication Date: 8/25/2014

Vulnerability Publication Date: 5/27/2014

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2014-0240

CWE: 271

RHSA: 2014:1091

Detections

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