How to make YUM list only security updates

How do I only list or install only security updates under RHEL 5.x or CentOS Linux server? How do I find out security updates descriptions such as CVE, bugs, issued date and type for each patch?

You can easily find out security patches related information using yum-security plugin. This plugin adds the options –security, –cve, –bz and –advisory flags to yum and the list-security and info-security commands. The options make it possible to limit list/upgrade of packages to specific security relevant ones. The commands give you the security information.
Install Plugin

Type the following command:
# yum install yum-security
How Do I Display Available Security Updates?

Type the following command:
# yum list-security
Sample Outputs:

Loaded plugins: rhnplugin, security
RHSA-2009:1148-1 security httpd-2.2.3-22.el5_3.2.x86_64
RHSA-2009:1148-1 security httpd-devel-2.2.3-22.el5_3.2.i386
RHSA-2009:1148-1 security httpd-manual-2.2.3-22.el5_3.2.x86_64
RHSA-2009:1148-1 security mod_ssl-1:2.2.3-22.el5_3.2.x86_64
list-security done

To list all updates that are security relevant, and get a reutrn code on whether there are security updates use:
# yum –security check-update

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