How to create a custom repository for CVE-2014-6271 & CVE-2014-7169 on SMT and SUSE Manager

This document (7015731) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 3 (SLES 11 SP3)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 2 (SLES 11 SP2)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 1 (SLES 11 SP1)
SUSE Manager 2.1
SUSE Manager 1.7

Situation

The shellshock situation (CVE-2014-6271 & CVE-2014-7169) forced a lot of customers to apply patches to outdated OS versions.
As these patches could not be retrieved through the normal channels (unless a LTSS support agreement has been signed) the easiest solution to distribute such patches to larger environments is to create a custom repository.
Further details on the shellshock situation can be found in TID 7015702 - CVE-2014-6271 & CVE-2014-7169 - Shellshock

Resolution

The easiest way to create a custom repo is to use the createrepo package that was developed for SUSE Manager but can be installed on all SLES 11 SP3 systems (SLES11-SP3-Updates repository) via:

zypper in createrepo

Once the package has been installed please go ahead and create the custom repository by following these steps:

Download the RPM's that should be part of the custom repository.
Information on how to access the patches can be found in TID 7015702 - CVE-2014-6271 & CVE-2014-7169 - Shellshock or Patch Finder directly.
Create a folder in /srv/www/htdocs with the name of the new repo, for example "SLES11-shellshock":

mkdir -p /srv/www/htdocs/<custom repo name>
Copy the files to /srv/www/htdocs/<custom repo name>
Issue the following command in the new repo:

createrepo
or
createrepo /srv/www/htdocs/<custom repo name>

The URL on the SMT system will be: http://<SMT FQDN>/<custom repo name</updates
The URL on the SUSE Manager will be: http://<SUSE Manager/<custom repo name>

Cause

Additional Information

In case the software selection is locked and no additional packages may be installed, there is a procedure to create the needed structure manually:

mkdir -p /srv/www/htdocs/<custom repo name>
cd /srv/www/htdocs/<custom repo name>
./create_update_source.sh .
mkdir -p ./updates/suse/x86_64
cp -a <new-postfix-rpm> ./updates/suse/x86_64
cd updates/suse
create_package_descr -x setup/descr/EXTRA_PROV
cd setup/descr
ls > directory.yast
cd ../../..
create_sha1sums -x -n .

Disclaimer

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