O-016: Apache HTTP Server 1.3.29 Release Fixes Security Vulnerability

REVISION HISTORY:
11/21/03 - Added HP-UX versions under Software section and added link information
           for Hewlett Packard's bulletin HPSBUX0311-301 (SSRT3663).
12/10/03 - Added Red Hat's advisory link information for RHSA-2003:360-08 for
           their Enterprise Linux products, and added product versions in the
           the Platform section.
01/07/04 - Added link information for HPSBUX0401-305 (SSRT4681) which released
           patches for systems using VVOS.
2/11/04 -  Added a link to Sun Alert ID: 57496.
2/27/04 -  Added a link for SGI Security Advisory 20040202-01-U Update #11.  SGI has patches available.	
9/21/04 -  Sun Alert ID #57496 was updated by the release of T-patches for 
           Solaris 8.
10/12/04 - Sun Alert ID #57496 was updated.  The Contributing Factors and Resolution
           sections were modified.
08/15/05 - Sun Microsystems has superceded their Alert ID #57496 with Alert ID: 101444 
           and modified Contributing Factors and Resolutions sections where links to 
           patches are provided.
	
	
		   
[***** Start Apache 1.3.29 Released *****]

Apache HTTP Server 1.3.29 Released

The Apache Software Foundation and The Apache HTTP Server Project are pleased to announce the release 
of version 1.3.29 of the Apache HTTP Server ("Apache"). This Announcement notes the significant changes 
in 1.3.29 as compared to 1.3.28. The Announcement is also available in German from 
http://www.apache.org/dist/httpd/Announcement.html.de.

This version of Apache is principally a bug and security fix release. A partial summary of the bug 
fixes is given at the end of this document. A full listing of changes can be found in the CHANGES file. 
Of particular note is that 1.3.29 addresses and fixes 1 potential security issue:

CAN-2003-0542 (cve.mitre.org): Fix buffer overflows in mod_alias and mod_rewrite which 
occurred if one configured a regular expression with more than 9 captures. 

We consider Apache 1.3.29 to be the best version of Apache 1.3 available and we strongly recommend that 
users of older versions, especially of the 1.1.x and 1.2.x family, upgrade as soon as possible. No further 
releases will be made in the 1.2.x family.

Apache 1.3.29 is available for download from

http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi

Binary distributions are available from

http://www.apache.org/dist/httpd/binaries/

This service utilizes the network of mirrors listed at:

http://www.apache.org/mirrors/

Please see the CHANGES_1.3 file in the same directory for a full list of changes.

As of Apache 1.3.12 binary distributions contain all standard Apache modules as shared objects (if 
supported by the platform) and include full source code. Installation is easily done by executing the 
included install script. See the README.bindist and INSTALL.bindist files for a complete explanation. 
Please note that the binary distributions are only provided for your convenience and current distributions 
for specific platforms are not always available. Win32 binary distributions are based on the Microsoft 
Installer (.MSI) technology. While development continues to make this installation method more robust, 
questions should be directed to the news:comp.infosystems.www.servers.ms-windows newsgroup.

For an overview of new features introduced after 1.2 please see

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/new_features_1_3.html

In general, Apache 1.3 offers several substantial improvements over version 1.2, including better 
performance, reliability and a wider range of supported platforms, including Windows 95/98 and NT (which 
fall under the "Win32" label), OS2, Netware, and TPE threaded platforms.

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR APACHE USERS: Apache 1.3 was designed for Unix OS variants. While the ports to non-Unix 
platforms (such as Win32, Netware or OS2) are of an acceptable quality, Apache 1.3 is not optimized for 
these platforms. Security, stability, or performance issues on these non-Unix ports do not generally apply 
to the Unix version, due to software's Unix origin.

Apache 2.0 has been structured for multiple operating systems from its inception, by introducing the Apache 
Portability Library and MPM modules. Users on non-Unix platforms are strongly encouraged to move up to 
Apache 2.0 for better performance, stability and security on their platforms.

Apache is the most popular web server in the known universe; over half of the servers on the Internet are 
running Apache or one of its variants.

Apache 1.3.29 Major changes

Security vulnerabilities

The main security vulnerabilities addressed in 1.3.29 are: 

CAN-2003-0542 (cve.mitre.org): Fix buffer overflows in mod_alias and mod_rewrite which occurred if one 
configured a regular expression with more than 9 captures. 


New features

New features that relate to specific platforms: 

Enabled RFC1413 ident functionality for both Win32 and NetWare platforms. This also included an 
alternate thread safe implementation of the socket timout functionality when querying the identd daemon. 


Bugs fixed

The following bugs were found in Apache 1.3.28 (or earlier) and have been fixed in Apache 1.3.29: 

Within ap_bclose(), ap_pclosesocket() is now called consistently for sockets and ap_pclosef() for files. 
Also, closesocket() is used consistenly to close socket fd's. The previous confusion between socket and file 
fd's would cause problems with some applications now that we proactively close fd's to prevent leakage. 
PR 22805. 
Fixed mod_usertrack to not get false positive matches on the user-tracking cookie's name. PR 16661. 
Prevent creation of subprocess Zombies when using CGI wrappers such as suEXEC and cgiwrap. PR 21737. 


[***** End Apache 1.3.29 Released *****]

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