Ads by TechWords

See your link here
Receive the latest technology news and information.
Linux
Computerworld Daily News (First Look and Wrap-Up)
Computerworld Blogs Newsletter
The Weekly Top 10
Cloud Computing
View all newsletters




Privacy Policy
 

Red Hat warns of security patch hoax for Linux users

A fake security e-mail is being sent out to users

October 25, 2004 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - Linux vendor Red Hat Inc. is warning customers about an e-mail hoax that urges them to download security patches that actually contain malicious payloads.
In a note to customers on its Web site, Red Hat said it "has been made aware that e-mails are circulating that pretend to come from the Red Hat Security Team. These e-mails tell users to download and install malicious updates. These Trojan updates contain malicious code designed to compromise the systems they are run on."
The company said that "official messages from the Red Hat security team are never sent unsolicited" and are always sent from the address secalert@redhat.com. All security messages are also digitally signed using GNU Privacy Guard security keys to prove their authenticity, the Raleigh, N.C.-based company said.
"All official updates for Red Hat products are digitally signed and should not be installed unless they are correctly signed and the signature is verified," the company said.
A spokesman for the company couldn't be reached for comment this morning.
One example of the hoax e-mail is dated Oct. 20 and claims that "Redhat [sic] found a vulnerability in fileutils (ls and mkdir), that could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code with root privileges. Some of the affected linux distributions include RedHat 7.2, RedHat 7.3, RedHat 8.0, RedHat 9.0, Fedora CORE 1, Fedora CORE 2 and not only. It is known that *BSD and Solaris platforms are NOT affected."
The hoax e-mail claims that "the RedHat Security Team strongly advises you to immediately apply the fileutils-1.0.6 patch," which it calls a "critical-critical update."
The hoax e-mail also points the recipient to an alleged Security RedHat mirror Web site where the malicious download, 1.0.6.patch.tar.gz, can be obtained. "Again, please apply this patch as soon as possible or you risk your system and others' to be compromised," the hoax e-mail says.

Read more about linux and unix in Computerworld's Linux and Unix Knowledge Center.



Jump to comments

Linux

Additional Resources

EFD vs. HDD - What You Need to Know
WHITE PAPER
Enterprise flash drives provide a new Tier 0 storage layer capable of delivering high I/O performance at a very low latency. Proper use of EFDs in an Oracle environment can deliver increased performance compared to fibre channel drives. Read the recommendations for identification of the best DB components for EFDs.
Gartner Research Report: Magic Quadrant for Application Delivery Controllers, 2009
WHITE PAPER
The market for products to improve the delivery of application software over networks remains dynamic and innovative. Vendors focused on solving enterprises' most-pressing application problems have become the top players.
Eight Criteria for Server Load Balancing
WHITE PAPER
Server load balancers are a simple yet highly effective means to scale an application environment while ensuring its availability. Today's solutions should also address application performance and security. Read about the top eight criteria you should consider when choosing a server load balancer and how Citrix NetScaler meets those requirements.

White Papers & Webcasts

IDC Webcast: Linux Adoption in a Global Recession
Access this webcast, compliments of Novell and HP, for a limited time only!

The Workday User Experience Video
Watch Workday's Creative Director, Scott Lietzke, discuss the business-centered design philosophy at Workday.

Business Process Framework Demo
Learn about Configurable Business Processes and Calculated Fields. Watch Now!


IT Jobs