Bug 1921726

Summary:	CVE-2020-27637 R: code execution via malicious CRAN package [epel-all]
Product:	[Fedora] Fedora EPEL	Reporter:	Michael Kaplan <mkaplan>
Component:	R	Assignee:	Tom "spot" Callaway <spotrh>
Status:	CLOSED CANTFIX	QA Contact:	Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity:	medium	Docs Contact:
Priority:	medium
Version:	epel7	CC:	i.ucar86, spotrh
Target Milestone:	---	Keywords:	Security, SecurityTracking
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	Unspecified
OS:	Unspecified
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	No Doc Update
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2021-02-01 18:06:19 UTC	Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:
Bug Depends On:
Bug Blocks:	1921725

Description Michael Kaplan 2021-01-28 13:59:10 UTC

This is an automatically created tracking bug!  It was created to ensure
that one or more security vulnerabilities are fixed in affected versions
of epel-all.

For comments that are specific to the vulnerability please use bugs filed
against the "Security Response" product referenced in the "Blocks" field.

For more information see:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Security/TrackingBugs

When submitting as an update, use the fedpkg template provided in the next
comment(s).  This will include the bug IDs of this tracking bug as well as
the relevant top-level CVE bugs.

Please also mention the CVE IDs being fixed in the RPM changelog and the
fedpkg commit message.

NOTE: this issue affects multiple supported versions of Fedora EPEL. While
only one tracking bug has been filed, please correct all affected versions
at the same time.  If you need to fix the versions independent of each
other, you may clone this bug as appropriate.

Comment 1 Michael Kaplan 2021-01-28 13:59:18 UTC

Use the following template to for the 'fedpkg update' request to submit an
update for this issue as it contains the top-level parent bug(s) as well as
this tracking bug.  This will ensure that all associated bugs get updated
when new packages are pushed to stable.

=====

# bugfix, security, enhancement, newpackage (required)
type=security

# low, medium, high, urgent (required)
severity=medium

# testing, stable
request=testing

# Bug numbers: 1234,9876
bugs=1921725,1921726

# Description of your update
notes=Security fix for [PUT CVEs HERE]

# Enable request automation based on the stable/unstable karma thresholds
autokarma=True
stable_karma=3
unstable_karma=-3

# Automatically close bugs when this marked as stable
close_bugs=True

# Suggest that users restart after update
suggest_reboot=False

======

Additionally, you may opt to use the bodhi web interface to submit updates:

https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/new

Comment 2 Tom "spot" Callaway 2021-02-01 18:06:19 UTC

Unfortunately, because of the fact that modern R needs C++11 support beyond what the system compiler possesses, the only way to build R on EL7 is with devtoolset. When R is built with devtoolset, it sets assumptions about compiler flags that it then passes on whenever someone tries to do a CRAN build, and those assumptions are false with the system GCC (and it causes packages installed from CRAN to fail to build in confusing ways). The most correct approach is to have a Requires: devtoolset-8-toolchain dependency, but this is not permitted in EPEL. 

Thus, the R package is left to either ship in a known broken state, or not ship at all. It would be irresponsible to do the former. If you find yourself in this position, consider updating to EL-8 which does not have this problem, or building the R package from SRPM and installing devtoolset-8-toolchain along with it.

I have done a build of R-4.0.3 for EL7 in koji, but it will eventually be garbage collected as it cannot go out as an update. 

https://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/taskinfo?taskID=61047054