CVE-2021-4034
Publication date 25 January 2022
Last updated 21 August 2024
Ubuntu priority
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.
Status
| Package | Ubuntu Release | Status |
|---|---|---|
| policykit-1 | 22.04 LTS jammy |
Fixed 0.105-31ubuntu1
|
| 20.04 LTS focal |
Fixed 0.105-26ubuntu1.2
|
|
| 18.04 LTS bionic |
Fixed 0.105-20ubuntu0.18.04.6
|
|
| 16.04 LTS xenial |
Fixed 0.105-14.1ubuntu0.5+esm1
|
|
| 14.04 LTS trusty |
Fixed 0.105-4ubuntu3.14.04.6+esm1
|
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Get Ubuntu ProSeverity score breakdown
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Base score |
7.8 · High
|
| Attack vector | Local |
| Attack complexity | Low |
| Privileges required | Low |
| User interaction | None |
| Scope | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | High |
| Integrity impact | High |
| Availability impact | High |
| Vector | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
References
Related Ubuntu Security Notices (USN)
- USN-5252-1
- PolicyKit vulnerability
- 25 January 2022
- USN-5252-2
- PolicyKit vulnerability
- 25 January 2022