RHEL 5.6 boasts new bug and security fixes

Though Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6 may have just been released in November, RHEL 5 still has a lot left in the tank: Red Hat just announced version 5.6 of the platform with a host of new bug and security fixes.

Overall fixes in RHEL 5.6 number approximately 2,000, and there are 340 individual enhancements. Some of the security enhancements include updated Domain Name Service (DNS) packages – RHEL 5.6 improves the cryptographic signatures that are good for high-security installations such as in government organizations.

There is also now support for sVirt (SELinux virtualization), which allows Mandatory Access Control (MAC) profiles to be applied to virtual guests, enhancing the system’s security. In addition, ebtables, a Layer 2 firewall application, is introduced in RHEL 5.6. With this application, those using RHEL for large virtualized deployments can securely partition guest traffic with the application while configuring using multiple software bridges within RHEL.

Security enhancements aside, there is also a wealth of other improvements in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.6, including support for new processors and chipsets. RHEL 5 will continue to be updated until 2014 by Red Hat. For more on the update, check out SearchDataCenter.com’s news brief and Red Hat’s blog.