(RHSA-2009:1289) Moderate: mysql security and bug fix update

MySQL is a multi-user, multi-threaded SQL database server. It consists of
the MySQL server daemon (mysqld) and many client programs and libraries.

MySQL did not correctly check directories used as arguments for the DATA
DIRECTORY and INDEX DIRECTORY directives. Using this flaw, an authenticated
attacker could elevate their access privileges to tables created by other
database users. Note: This attack does not work on existing tables. An
attacker can only elevate their access to another user’s tables as the
tables are created. As well, the names of these created tables need to be
predicted correctly for this attack to succeed. (CVE-2008-2079)

A flaw was found in the way MySQL handles an empty bit-string literal. A
remote, authenticated attacker could crash the MySQL server daemon (mysqld)
if they used an empty bit-string literal in an SQL statement. This issue
only caused a temporary denial of service, as the MySQL daemon was
automatically restarted after the crash. (CVE-2008-3963)

An insufficient HTML entities quoting flaw was found in the mysql command
line client’s HTML output mode. If an attacker was able to inject arbitrary
HTML tags into data stored in a MySQL database, which was later retrieved
using the mysql command line client and its HTML output mode, they could
perform a cross-site scripting (XSS) attack against victims viewing the
HTML output in a web browser. (CVE-2008-4456)

Multiple format string flaws were found in the way the MySQL server logs
user commands when creating and deleting databases. A remote, authenticated
attacker with permissions to CREATE and DROP databases could use these
flaws to formulate a specifically-crafted SQL command that would cause a
temporary denial of service (open connections to mysqld are terminated).
(CVE-2009-2446)

Note: To exploit the CVE-2009-2446 flaws, the general query log (the mysqld
“–log” command line option or the “log” option in “/etc/my.cnf”) must be
enabled. This logging is not enabled by default.

This update also fixes multiple bugs. Details regarding these bugs can be
found in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 Technical Notes. You can find a
link to the Technical Notes in the References section of this errata.

Note: These updated packages upgrade MySQL to version 5.0.77 to incorporate
numerous upstream bug fixes. Details of these changes are found in the
following MySQL Release Notes:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/news-5-0-77.html

All MySQL users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which
resolve these issues. After installing this update, the MySQL server
daemon (mysqld) will be restarted automatically.