A local privilege escalation vulnerability was found on polkit's pkexec utility. The pkexec application is a setuid tool designed to allow unprivileged users to run commands as privileged users according predefined policies. The current version of pkexec doesn't handle the calling parameters count correctly and ends trying to execute environment variables as commands. An attacker can leverage this by crafting environment variables in such a way it'll induce pkexec to execute arbitrary code. When successfully executed the attack can cause a local privilege escalation given unprivileged users administrative rights on the target machine.
CVSS Details
- CVSS 3.1 Base Score: 7.8
- CVSS 3.1 Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H)
Covered by Rapid7
| Product | Vendor Advisory | Solution File | Added | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alma_linux | — | Upgrade polkit-docsUpgrade polkitUpgrade polkit-libsUpgrade polkit-devel | May 4, 2022 | Jan 28, 2022 |
| Alpine Linux | — | Upgrade polkit | Mar 21, 2024 | Jan 28, 2022 |
| Amazon Linux Ami 2 | — | Upgrade polkit-docsUpgrade polkit-debuginfoUpgrade polkitUpgrade polkit-devel | Jul 4, 2022 | Jan 28, 2022 |
| Amazon_linux_2023 | — | Upgrade polkitUpgrade polkit-debugsourceUpgrade polkit-libsUpgrade polkit-docsUpgrade polkit-debuginfoUpgrade polkit-develUpgrade polkit-libs-debuginfo | Feb 17, 2025 | Jan 25, 2022 |
| Arch Linux | — | Upgrade to the latest version of Arch Linux | Jul 11, 2025 | Jan 28, 2022 |
| Centos_linux | — | Upgrade polkit-libs-debuginfoUpgrade polkit-debugsourceUpgrade polkitUpgrade polkit-develUpgrade polkit-desktop-policyUpgrade polkit-libsUpgrade polkit-debuginfoUpgrade polkit-docs | Feb 17, 2022 | Jan 28, 2022 |
| Debian | — | Upgrade policykit-1 | Jan 27, 2022 | Jan 27, 2022 |
| Freebsd | — | Upgrade polkit | Nov 4, 2022 | Jan 26, 2022 |
| Gentoo Linux | — | Upgrade sys-auth/polkit. | Jan 28, 2022 | Jan 27, 2022 |
| Huawei Euleros 2_0_sp10 | — | Upgrade polkit-libsUpgrade polkit | Apr 20, 2022 | Jan 28, 2022 |
| Huawei Euleros 2_0_sp3 | — | Upgrade polkit-debuginfoUpgrade polkit-docsUpgrade polkit-develUpgrade polkit | Mar 30, 2022 | Jan 28, 2022 |
| Huawei Euleros 2_0_sp5 | — | Upgrade polkit-docsUpgrade polkitUpgrade polkit-devel | Mar 22, 2022 | Jan 28, 2022 |
| Huawei Euleros 2_0_sp8 | — | Upgrade polkit-develUpgrade polkit-libsUpgrade polkit-docsUpgrade polkit | Mar 29, 2022 | Jan 28, 2022 |
| Huawei Euleros 2_0_sp9 | — | Upgrade polkitUpgrade polkit-helpUpgrade polkit-libsUpgrade polkit-debugsourceUpgrade polkit-debuginfoUpgrade polkit-devel | Apr 18, 2022 | Jan 28, 2022 |
| Nutanix Ahv | — | Upgrade Nutanix AHV to the latest version | Jun 5, 2026 | Jan 24, 2023 |
| Oracle Solaris | — | Upgrade system/library/polkit to version 0.118-11.4.42.0.1.113.1 on Solaris 11.4 | Feb 17, 2022 | Jan 28, 2022 |
| Oracle_linux | — | Upgrade polkit-develUpgrade polkit-libsUpgrade polkit-desktop-policyUpgrade polkitUpgrade polkit-docs | Jan 26, 2022 | Jan 25, 2022 |
| Redhat_linux | — | Upgrade polkit-libsUpgrade polkit-develUpgrade polkit-debuginfoUpgrade polkit-libs-debuginfoUpgrade polkit-docsUpgrade polkit-debugsourceUpgrade polkit | Jan 26, 2022 | Jan 25, 2022 |
| Rocky_linux | — | Upgrade polkit-debuginfoUpgrade polkit-libsUpgrade polkit-develUpgrade polkit-libs-debuginfoUpgrade polkitUpgrade polkit-debugsource | May 5, 2022 | Jan 28, 2022 |
| Suse | — | Upgrade libpolkit-gobject-1-0Upgrade libpolkit0-32bitUpgrade polkitUpgrade typelib-1_0-polkit-1_0Upgrade libpolkit0Upgrade polkit-docUpgrade polkit-develUpgrade libpolkit-agent-1-0Upgrade pkexec | Jan 26, 2022 | Jan 25, 2022 |
| Ubuntu | — | Upgrade policykit-1Upgrade policykit-1 (Ubuntu Pro) | Jan 26, 2022 | Jan 25, 2022 |
| Vmware Photon_os | — | Use 'tdnf update' to upgrade all packages to the latest version. | Jan 20, 2025 | Jan 28, 2022 |
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