(RHSA-2005:481) openssh security update

OpenSSH is OpenBSD’s SSH (Secure SHell) protocol implementation. SSH
replaces rlogin and rsh, and provides secure encrypted communications
between two untrusted hosts over an insecure network. X11 connections and
arbitrary TCP/IP ports can also be forwarded over a secure channel. Public
key authentication can be used for “passwordless” access to servers.

The scp protocol allows a server to instruct a client to write to arbitrary
files outside of the current directory. This could potentially cause a
security issue if a user uses scp to copy files from a malicious server.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has
assigned the name CAN-2004-0175 to this issue.

These updated packages also correct the following bug:

On systems in which direct ssh access for the root user was disabled by
configuration (setting “PermitRootLogin no”), attempts to guess the root
password could be judged as sucessful or unsucessful by observing a delay.

Users of openssh should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain
backported patches to resolve these issues.