The list_directory function in Lib/SimpleHTTPServer.py in SimpleHTTPServer in Python before 2.5.6c1, 2.6.x before 2.6.7 rc2, and 2.7.x before 2.7.2 does not place a charset parameter in the Content-Type HTTP header, which makes it easier for remote attackers to conduct cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks against Internet Explorer 7 via UTF-7 encoding.

The remote MiracleLinux 3 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the AXSA:2012-569:02 advisory.

    Python is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language often compared to Tcl, Perl,     Scheme or Java. Python includes modules, classes, exceptions, very high level dynamic data types and     dynamic typing. Python supports interfaces to many system calls and libraries, as well as to various     windowing systems (X11, Motif, Tk, Mac and MFC).
    Programmers can write new built-in modules for Python in C or C++. Python can be used as an extension     language for applications that need a programmable interface. This package contains most of the standard     Python modules, as well as modules for interfacing to the Tix widget set for Tk and RPM.
    Note that documentation for Python is provided in the python-docs package.
    Security issues fixed with this release:
    CVE-2011-4940     The list_directory function in Lib/SimpleHTTPServer.py in SimpleHTTPServer in Python before 2.5.6c1, 2.6.x     before 2.6.7 rc2, and 2.7.x before 2.7.2 does not place a charset parameter in the Content-Type HTTP     header, which makes it easier for remote attackers to conduct cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks against     Internet Explorer 7 via UTF-7 encoding.
    CVE-2011-4944     CVE-2012-1150     No description available at the time of writing, please use the CVE links below.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the MiracleLinux security advisory.

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

The remote MiracleLinux 4 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the AXSA:2012-663:02 advisory.

    Python is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language often compared to Tcl, Perl,     Scheme or Java. Python includes modules, classes, exceptions, very high level dynamic data types and     dynamic typing. Python supports interfaces to many system calls and libraries, as well as to various     windowing systems (X11, Motif, Tk, Mac and MFC).
    Programmers can write new built-in modules for Python in C or C++. Python can be used as an extension     language for applications that need a programmable interface. This package contains most of the standard     Python modules, as well as modules for interfacing to the Tix widget set for Tk and RPM.
    Note that documentation for Python is provided in the python-docs package.
    Security issues fixed with this release:
    CVE-2011-4940     The list_directory function in Lib/SimpleHTTPServer.py in SimpleHTTPServer in Python before 2.5.6c1, 2.6.x     before 2.6.7 rc2, and 2.7.x before 2.7.2 does not place a charset parameter in the Content-Type HTTP     header, which makes it easier for remote attackers to conduct cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks against     Internet Explorer 7 via UTF-7 encoding.
    CVE-2011-4944     CVE-2012-0845     CVE-2012-1150     No description available at the time of writing, please use the CVE links below.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the MiracleLinux security advisory.

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

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

  - The list_directory function in Lib/SimpleHTTPServer.py in SimpleHTTPServer in Python before 2.5.6c1, 2.6.x     before 2.6.7 rc2, and 2.7.x before 2.7.2 does not place a charset parameter in the Content-Type HTTP     header, which makes it easier for remote attackers to conduct cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks against     Internet Explorer 7 via UTF-7 encoding. (CVE-2011-4940)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

The remote VMware ESX / ESXi host is missing a security-related patch.
It is, therefore, affected by multiple vulnerabilities, including remote code execution vulnerabilities, in several components and third-party libraries :

  - bind
  - expat
  - nspr and nss
  - python
  - vSphere API

A denial of service flaw was found in the implementation of associative arrays (dictionaries) in Python. An attacker able to supply a large number of inputs to a Python application (such as HTTP POST request parameters sent to a web application) that are used as keys when inserting data into an array could trigger multiple hash function collisions, making array operations take an excessive amount of CPU time. To mitigate this issue, randomization has been added to the hash function to reduce the chance of an attacker successfully causing intentional collisions. (CVE-2012-1150)

Note: The hash randomization is not enabled by default as it may break applications that incorrectly depend on dictionary ordering. To enable the protection, the new 'PYTHONHASHSEED' environment variable or the Python interpreter's '-R' command line option can be used. Refer to the python(1) manual page for details.

A flaw was found in the way the Python SimpleXMLRPCServer module handled clients disconnecting prematurely. A remote attacker could use this flaw to cause excessive CPU consumption on a server using SimpleXMLRPCServer. (CVE-2012-0845)

A flaw was found in the way the Python SimpleHTTPServer module generated directory listings. An attacker able to upload a file with a specially crafted name to a server could possibly perform a cross-site scripting (XSS) attack against victims visiting a listing page generated by SimpleHTTPServer, for a directory containing the crafted file (if the victims were using certain web browsers). (CVE-2011-4940)

A race condition was found in the way the Python distutils module set file permissions during the creation of the .pypirc file. If a local user had access to the home directory of another user who is running distutils, they could use this flaw to gain access to that user's .pypirc file, which can contain usernames and passwords for code repositories. (CVE-2011-4944)

The remote Oracle Linux 5 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the ELSA-2012-0745 advisory.

    - if hash randomization is enabled, also enable it within pyexpat     Resolves: CVE-2012-0876
    - distutils.commands.register: create ~/.pypirc securely     Resolves: CVE-2011-4944
    - send encoding in SimpleHTTPServer.list_directory to protect IE7 against     potential XSS attacks     Resolves: CVE-2011-4940

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Oracle Linux security advisory.

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

The remote Oracle Linux 6 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the ELSA-2012-0744 advisory.

    - if hash randomization is enabled, also enable it within pyexpat     Resolves: CVE-2012-0876
    - distutils.config: create ~/.pypirc securely     Resolves: CVE-2011-4944
    - fix endless loop in SimpleXMLRPCServer upon malformed POST request     Resolves: CVE-2012-0845
    - send encoding in SimpleHTTPServer.list_directory to protect IE7 against     potential XSS attacks     Resolves: CVE-2011-4940

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Oracle Linux security advisory.

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

a. VMware vSphere API denial of service vulnerability

   The VMware vSphere API contains a denial of service    vulnerability.  This issue allows an unauthenticated user to    send a maliciously crafted API request and disable the host    daemon. Exploitation of the issue would prevent management    activities on the host but any virtual machines running on the    host would be unaffected.

   VMware would like to thank Sebastian Tello of Core Security    Technologies for reporting this issue to us.
    The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org)    has assigned the name CVE-2012-5703 to this issue.

b. Update to ESX service console bind packages

   The ESX service console bind packages are updated to the    following versions :

       bind-libs-9.3.6-20.P1.el5_8.2        bind-utils-9.3.6-20.P1.el5_8.2

   These updates fix multiple security issues. The Common    Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has    assigned the names CVE-2012-1033, CVE-2012-1667, and    CVE-2012-3817 to these issues.

c. Update to ESX service console python packages

   The ESX service console Python packages are updated to the    following versions :

       python-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.x86_64        python-libs-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.x86_64      These updates fix multiple security issues. The Common    Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has    assigned the names CVE-2011-4940, CVE-2011-4944, and    CVE-2012-1150 to these issues.

d. Update to ESX service console expat package

   The ESX service console expat package is updated to    expat-1.95.8-11.el5_8.

   This update fixes multiple security issues. The Common    Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has    assigned the names CVE-2012-0876 and CVE-2012-1148 to these    issues.

e. Update to ESX service console nspr and nss packages

   This patch updates the ESX service console Netscape Portable    Runtime and Network Security Services RPMs to versions    nspr-4.9.1.4.el5_8 and nss-3.13.5.4.9834, respectively, to    resolve multiple security issues.

   The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org)    has assigned the name CVE-2012-0441 to this issue. This patch    also resolves a certificate trust issue caused by a fraudulent    DigiNotar root certificate.

USN-1613-1 fixed vulnerabilities in Python 2.5. This update provides the corresponding updates for Python 2.4.

It was discovered that Python would prepend an empty string to sys.path under certain circumstances. A local attacker with write access to the current working directory could exploit this to execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2008-5983)

It was discovered that the audioop module did not correctly perform input validation. If a user or automated system were tricked into opening a crafted audio file, an attacker could cause a denial of service via application crash.
(CVE-2010-1634, CVE-2010-2089)

Giampaolo Rodola discovered several race conditions in the smtpd module. A remote attacker could exploit this to cause a denial of service via daemon outage. (CVE-2010-3493)

It was discovered that the CGIHTTPServer module did not properly perform input validation on certain HTTP GET requests. A remote attacker could potentially obtain access to CGI script source files. (CVE-2011-1015)

Niels Heinen discovered that the urllib and urllib2 modules would process Location headers that specify a redirection to file: URLs. A remote attacker could exploit this to obtain sensitive information or cause a denial of service.
(CVE-2011-1521)

It was discovered that SimpleHTTPServer did not use a charset parameter in the Content-Type HTTP header. An attacker could potentially exploit this to conduct cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks against Internet Explorer 7 users. (CVE-2011-4940)

It was discovered that Python distutils contained a race condition when creating the ~/.pypirc file. A local attacker could exploit this to obtain sensitive information.
(CVE-2011-4944)

It was discovered that SimpleXMLRPCServer did not properly validate its input when handling HTTP POST requests. A remote attacker could exploit this to cause a denial of service via excessive CPU utilization. (CVE-2012-0845)

It was discovered that the Expat module in Python 2.5 computed hash values without restricting the ability to trigger hash collisions predictably. If a user or application using pyexpat were tricked into opening a crafted XML file, an attacker could cause a denial of service by consuming excessive CPU resources.
(CVE-2012-0876)

Tim Boddy discovered that the Expat module in Python 2.5 did not properly handle memory reallocation when processing XML files. If a user or application using pyexpat were tricked into opening a crafted XML file, an attacker could cause a denial of service by consuming excessive memory resources.
(CVE-2012-1148).

Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

It was discovered that Python would prepend an empty string to sys.path under certain circumstances. A local attacker with write access to the current working directory could exploit this to execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2008-5983)

It was discovered that the audioop module did not correctly perform input validation. If a user or automated system were tricked into opening a crafted audio file, an attacker could cause a denial of service via application crash. (CVE-2010-1634, CVE-2010-2089)

Giampaolo Rodola discovered several race conditions in the smtpd module. A remote attacker could exploit this to cause a denial of service via daemon outage. (CVE-2010-3493)

It was discovered that the CGIHTTPServer module did not properly perform input validation on certain HTTP GET requests. A remote attacker could potentially obtain access to CGI script source files.
(CVE-2011-1015)

Niels Heinen discovered that the urllib and urllib2 modules would process Location headers that specify a redirection to file: URLs. A remote attacker could exploit this to obtain sensitive information or cause a denial of service. (CVE-2011-1521)

It was discovered that SimpleHTTPServer did not use a charset parameter in the Content-Type HTTP header. An attacker could potentially exploit this to conduct cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks against Internet Explorer 7 users. (CVE-2011-4940)

It was discovered that Python distutils contained a race condition when creating the ~/.pypirc file. A local attacker could exploit this to obtain sensitive information. (CVE-2011-4944)

It was discovered that SimpleXMLRPCServer did not properly validate its input when handling HTTP POST requests. A remote attacker could exploit this to cause a denial of service via excessive CPU utilization. (CVE-2012-0845)

It was discovered that the Expat module in Python 2.5 computed hash values without restricting the ability to trigger hash collisions predictably. If a user or application using pyexpat were tricked into opening a crafted XML file, an attacker could cause a denial of service by consuming excessive CPU resources. (CVE-2012-0876)

Tim Boddy discovered that the Expat module in Python 2.5 did not properly handle memory reallocation when processing XML files. If a user or application using pyexpat were tricked into opening a crafted XML file, an attacker could cause a denial of service by consuming excessive memory resources. (CVE-2012-1148).

Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

It was discovered that Python would prepend an empty string to sys.path under certain circumstances. A local attacker with write access to the current working directory could exploit this to execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2008-5983)

It was discovered that the audioop module did not correctly perform input validation. If a user or automated system were tricked into opening a crafted audio file, an attacker could cause a denial of service via application crash. (CVE-2010-1634, CVE-2010-2089)

Giampaolo Rodola discovered several race conditions in the smtpd module. A remote attacker could exploit this to cause a denial of service via daemon outage. (CVE-2010-3493)

It was discovered that the CGIHTTPServer module did not properly perform input validation on certain HTTP GET requests. A remote attacker could potentially obtain access to CGI script source files.
(CVE-2011-1015)

Niels Heinen discovered that the urllib and urllib2 modules would process Location headers that specify a redirection to file: URLs. A remote attacker could exploit this to obtain sensitive information or cause a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 11.04.
(CVE-2011-1521)

It was discovered that SimpleHTTPServer did not use a charset parameter in the Content-Type HTTP header. An attacker could potentially exploit this to conduct cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks against Internet Explorer 7 users. This issue only affected Ubuntu 11.04. (CVE-2011-4940)

It was discovered that Python distutils contained a race condition when creating the ~/.pypirc file. A local attacker could exploit this to obtain sensitive information. (CVE-2011-4944)

It was discovered that SimpleXMLRPCServer did not properly validate its input when handling HTTP POST requests. A remote attacker could exploit this to cause a denial of service via excessive CPU utilization. (CVE-2012-0845)

It was discovered that Python was susceptible to hash algorithm attacks. An attacker could cause a denial of service under certian circumstances. This update adds the '-R' command line option and honors setting the PYTHONHASHSEED environment variable to 'random' to salt str and datetime objects with an unpredictable value.
(CVE-2012-1150).

Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

Niels Heinen discovered that the urllib and urllib2 modules would process Location headers that specify a redirection to file: URLs. A remote attacker could exploit this to obtain sensitive information or cause a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 11.04.
(CVE-2011-1521)

It was discovered that SimpleHTTPServer did not use a charset parameter in the Content-Type HTTP header. An attacker could potentially exploit this to conduct cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks against Internet Explorer 7 users. This issue only affected Ubuntu 11.04. (CVE-2011-4940)

It was discovered that Python distutils contained a race condition when creating the ~/.pypirc file. A local attacker could exploit this to obtain sensitive information. (CVE-2011-4944)

It was discovered that SimpleXMLRPCServer did not properly validate its input when handling HTTP POST requests. A remote attacker could exploit this to cause a denial of service via excessive CPU utilization. (CVE-2012-0845)

It was discovered that Python was susceptible to hash algorithm attacks. An attacker could cause a denial of service under certian circumstances. This update adds the '-R' command line option and honors setting the PYTHONHASHSEED environment variable to 'random' to salt str and datetime objects with an unpredictable value.
(CVE-2012-1150).

Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

Python is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language.

A denial of service flaw was found in the implementation of associative arrays (dictionaries) in Python. An attacker able to supply a large number of inputs to a Python application (such as HTTP POST request parameters sent to a web application) that are used as keys when inserting data into an array could trigger multiple hash function collisions, making array operations take an excessive amount of CPU time. To mitigate this issue, randomization has been added to the hash function to reduce the chance of an attacker successfully causing intentional collisions. (CVE-2012-1150)

Note: The hash randomization is not enabled by default as it may break applications that incorrectly depend on dictionary ordering. To enable the protection, the new 'PYTHONHASHSEED' environment variable or the Python interpreter's '-R' command line option can be used. Refer to the python(1) manual page for details.

The previous expat erratum must be installed with this update, which adds hash randomization to the Expat library used by the Python pyexpat module.

A flaw was found in the way the Python SimpleXMLRPCServer module handled clients disconnecting prematurely. A remote attacker could use this flaw to cause excessive CPU consumption on a server using SimpleXMLRPCServer. (CVE-2012-0845)

A flaw was found in the way the Python SimpleHTTPServer module generated directory listings. An attacker able to upload a file with a specially crafted name to a server could possibly perform a cross-site scripting (XSS) attack against victims visiting a listing page generated by SimpleHTTPServer, for a directory containing the crafted file (if the victims were using certain web browsers). (CVE-2011-4940)

A race condition was found in the way the Python distutils module set file permissions during the creation of the .pypirc file. If a local user had access to the home directory of another user who is running distutils, they could use this flaw to gain access to that user's .pypirc file, which can contain usernames and passwords for code repositories. (CVE-2011-4944)

All Python users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues.

Python is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language.

A denial of service flaw was found in the implementation of associative arrays (dictionaries) in Python. An attacker able to supply a large number of inputs to a Python application (such as HTTP POST request parameters sent to a web application) that are used as keys when inserting data into an array could trigger multiple hash function collisions, making array operations take an excessive amount of CPU time. To mitigate this issue, randomization has been added to the hash function to reduce the chance of an attacker successfully causing intentional collisions. (CVE-2012-1150)

Note: The hash randomization is not enabled by default as it may break applications that incorrectly depend on dictionary ordering. To enable the protection, the new 'PYTHONHASHSEED' environment variable or the Python interpreter's '-R' command line option can be used. Refer to the python(1) manual page for details.

The previous expat erratum must be installed with this update, which adds hash randomization to the Expat library used by the Python pyexpat module.

A flaw was found in the way the Python SimpleHTTPServer module generated directory listings. An attacker able to upload a file with a specially crafted name to a server could possibly perform a cross-site scripting (XSS) attack against victims visiting a listing page generated by SimpleHTTPServer, for a directory containing the crafted file (if the victims were using certain web browsers). (CVE-2011-4940)

A race condition was found in the way the Python distutils module set file permissions during the creation of the .pypirc file. If a local user had access to the home directory of another user who is running distutils, they could use this flaw to gain access to that user's .pypirc file, which can contain usernames and passwords for code repositories. (CVE-2011-4944)

All Python users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues.

Multiple vulnerabilities has been discovered and corrected in python :

The _ssl module would always disable the CBC IV attack countermeasure (CVE-2011-3389).

A flaw was found in the way the Python SimpleHTTPServer module generated directory listings. An attacker able to upload a file with a specially crafted name to a server could possibly perform a cross-site scripting (XSS) attack against victims visiting a listing page generated by SimpleHTTPServer, for a directory containing the crafted file (if the victims were using certain web browsers) (CVE-2011-4940).

A race condition was found in the way the Python distutils module set file permissions during the creation of the .pypirc file. If a local user had access to the home directory of another user who is running distutils, they could use this flaw to gain access to that user's .pypirc file, which can contain usernames and passwords for code repositories (CVE-2011-4944).

A flaw was found in the way the Python SimpleXMLRPCServer module handled clients disconnecting prematurely. A remote attacker could use this flaw to cause excessive CPU consumption on a server using SimpleXMLRPCServer (CVE-2012-0845).

Hash table collisions CPU usage DoS for the embedded copy of expat (CVE-2012-0876).

A denial of service flaw was found in the implementation of associative arrays (dictionaries) in Python. An attacker able to supply a large number of inputs to a Python application (such as HTTP POST request parameters sent to a web application) that are used as keys when inserting data into an array could trigger multiple hash function collisions, making array operations take an excessive amount of CPU time. To mitigate this issue, randomization has been added to the hash function to reduce the chance of an attacker successfully causing intentional collisions (CVE-2012-1150).

The updated packages have been patched to correct these issues.

Updated python packages that fix multiple security issues are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having moderate security impact. Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base scores, which give detailed severity ratings, are available for each vulnerability from the CVE links in the References section.

Python is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language.

A denial of service flaw was found in the implementation of associative arrays (dictionaries) in Python. An attacker able to supply a large number of inputs to a Python application (such as HTTP POST request parameters sent to a web application) that are used as keys when inserting data into an array could trigger multiple hash function collisions, making array operations take an excessive amount of CPU time. To mitigate this issue, randomization has been added to the hash function to reduce the chance of an attacker successfully causing intentional collisions. (CVE-2012-1150)

Note: The hash randomization is not enabled by default as it may break applications that incorrectly depend on dictionary ordering. To enable the protection, the new 'PYTHONHASHSEED' environment variable or the Python interpreter's '-R' command line option can be used. Refer to the python(1) manual page for details.

The RHSA-2012:0731 expat erratum must be installed with this update, which adds hash randomization to the Expat library used by the Python pyexpat module.

A flaw was found in the way the Python SimpleXMLRPCServer module handled clients disconnecting prematurely. A remote attacker could use this flaw to cause excessive CPU consumption on a server using SimpleXMLRPCServer. (CVE-2012-0845)

A flaw was found in the way the Python SimpleHTTPServer module generated directory listings. An attacker able to upload a file with a specially crafted name to a server could possibly perform a cross-site scripting (XSS) attack against victims visiting a listing page generated by SimpleHTTPServer, for a directory containing the crafted file (if the victims were using certain web browsers). (CVE-2011-4940)

A race condition was found in the way the Python distutils module set file permissions during the creation of the .pypirc file. If a local user had access to the home directory of another user who is running distutils, they could use this flaw to gain access to that user's .pypirc file, which can contain usernames and passwords for code repositories. (CVE-2011-4944)

Red Hat would like to thank oCERT for reporting CVE-2012-1150. oCERT acknowledges Julian Walde and Alexander Klink as the original reporters of CVE-2012-1150.

All Python users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues.

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 5 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the RHSA-2012:0745 advisory.

  - python: potential XSS in SimpleHTTPServer's list_directory() (CVE-2011-4940)

  - python: distutils creates ~/.pypirc insecurely (CVE-2011-4944)

  - python: hash table collisions CPU usage DoS (oCERT-2011-003) (CVE-2012-1150)

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

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 6 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the RHSA-2012:0744 advisory.

  - python: potential XSS in SimpleHTTPServer's list_directory() (CVE-2011-4940)

  - python: distutils creates ~/.pypirc insecurely (CVE-2011-4944)

  - python: SimpleXMLRPCServer CPU usage DoS via malformed XML-RPC request (CVE-2012-0845)

  - python: hash table collisions CPU usage DoS (oCERT-2011-003) (CVE-2012-1150)

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

Updated python packages that fix multiple security issues are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having moderate security impact. Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base scores, which give detailed severity ratings, are available for each vulnerability from the CVE links in the References section.

Python is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language.

A denial of service flaw was found in the implementation of associative arrays (dictionaries) in Python. An attacker able to supply a large number of inputs to a Python application (such as HTTP POST request parameters sent to a web application) that are used as keys when inserting data into an array could trigger multiple hash function collisions, making array operations take an excessive amount of CPU time. To mitigate this issue, randomization has been added to the hash function to reduce the chance of an attacker successfully causing intentional collisions. (CVE-2012-1150)

Note: The hash randomization is not enabled by default as it may break applications that incorrectly depend on dictionary ordering. To enable the protection, the new 'PYTHONHASHSEED' environment variable or the Python interpreter's '-R' command line option can be used. Refer to the python(1) manual page for details.

The RHSA-2012:0731 expat erratum must be installed with this update, which adds hash randomization to the Expat library used by the Python pyexpat module.

A flaw was found in the way the Python SimpleHTTPServer module generated directory listings. An attacker able to upload a file with a specially crafted name to a server could possibly perform a cross-site scripting (XSS) attack against victims visiting a listing page generated by SimpleHTTPServer, for a directory containing the crafted file (if the victims were using certain web browsers). (CVE-2011-4940)

A race condition was found in the way the Python distutils module set file permissions during the creation of the .pypirc file. If a local user had access to the home directory of another user who is running distutils, they could use this flaw to gain access to that user's .pypirc file, which can contain usernames and passwords for code repositories. (CVE-2011-4944)

Red Hat would like to thank oCERT for reporting CVE-2012-1150. oCERT acknowledges Julian Walde and Alexander Klink as the original reporters of CVE-2012-1150.

All Python users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Type	Severity
284388	MiracleLinux 3 : python-2.4.3-46.2.0.1.AXS3 (AXSA:2012-569:02)	Nessus	Miracle Linux Local Security Checks	Local	medium
284264	MiracleLinux 4 : python-2.6.6-29.AXS4.2 (AXSA:2012-663:02)	Nessus	Miracle Linux Local Security Checks	Local	medium
217431	Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2011-4940	Nessus	Misc.	Local	medium
89039	VMware ESX / ESXi Multiple Vulnerabilities (VMSA-2012-0016) (remote check)	Nessus	Misc.	Remote	high
69705	Amazon Linux AMI : python26 (ALAS-2012-98)	Nessus	Amazon Linux Local Security Checks	Local	medium
68546	Oracle Linux 5 : python (ELSA-2012-0745)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	Local	high
68545	Oracle Linux 6 : python (ELSA-2012-0744)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	Local	medium
62944	VMSA-2012-0016 : VMware security updates for vSphere API and ESX Service Console	Nessus	VMware ESX Local Security Checks	Local	high
62620	Ubuntu 8.04 LTS : python2.4 vulnerabilities (USN-1613-2)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	Local	medium
62619	Ubuntu 8.04 LTS : python2.5 vulnerabilities (USN-1613-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	Local	medium
62436	Ubuntu 10.04 LTS / 11.04 / 11.10 : python2.6 vulnerabilities (USN-1596-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	Local	medium
62410	Ubuntu 11.04 / 11.10 : python2.7 vulnerabilities (USN-1592-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	Local	medium
61333	Scientific Linux Security Update : python on SL6.x i386/x86_64 (20120618)	Nessus	Scientific Linux Local Security Checks	Local	medium
61332	Scientific Linux Security Update : python on SL5.x i386/x86_64 (20120618)	Nessus	Scientific Linux Local Security Checks	Local	medium
59635	Mandriva Linux Security Advisory : python (MDVSA-2012:096)	Nessus	Mandriva Local Security Checks	Local	medium
59570	CentOS 6 : python (CESA-2012:0744)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	Local	medium
59564	RHEL 5 : python (RHSA-2012:0745)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	Local	high
59563	RHEL 6 : python (RHSA-2012:0744)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	Local	high
59560	CentOS 5 : python (CESA-2012:0745)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	Local	medium

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2011-4940

medium

Tenable Plugins

medium

medium

medium

high

medium

high

medium

high

medium

medium

medium

medium

medium

medium

medium

medium

high

high

medium