CVE-2021-4034
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
02 Description
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
03 Exploitation and scoring
- Exploitation
- Exploited in the wild. Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2022-06-27. Federal remediation due 2022-07-18. Known ransomware campaign use: reported by CISA.
- SSVC decision
- ExploitationactiveCISA reports credible evidence of active exploitation.
- AutomatablenoAt least one step from reconnaissance to exploitation cannot be reliably automated.
- Technical ImpacttotalSuccessful exploitation gives total control of the vulnerable component.
- EPSS probability
- 94.92% probability of exploitation activity in the next 30 days.
- EPSS percentile
- Equal to or higher than the score of 99.8% of scored records. A rank, not a probability.
- NVD base score
- 7.8 (CVSS v3.x), scored by the NVD independently of the CNA.
- NVD CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- NVD analysis status
- Analyzed. NVD last modified this record on 2026-08-15.
- Red Hat severity
- Important. Red Hat's rating for its own products, not a CVSS rating.
Exploit-prediction scores from FIRST. Independent scoring and analysis status from the NVD. Vendor severity from Red Hat. Exploitation assessment and catalog membership from CISA.
04 Metadata
- Published
- 2022-01-28 00:00Z4 YR AGO
- Last updated
- 2026-08-15 03:55Z2 MO AGO
- Reserved
- 2021-11-29
- Assigning CNA
- redhat
- Record state
- PUBLISHED
- Severity
- High (CVSS 7.8)
- CNA CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- Weaknesses
- CWE-787Out-of-bounds WriteBase
- Data version
- 5.2
- Document digest
- 323b8dd410e5d8114f03054670ec3ce49220e93dad3a5baf3cf0240c1e80365b
05 Affected products
06 References
- access.redhat.comhttps://access.redhat.com/security/vulnerabilities/RHSB-2022-001
- www.qualys.comhttps://www.qualys.com/2022/01/25/cve-2021-4034/pwnkit.txt
- bugzilla.redhat.comhttps://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2025869
- gitlab.freedesktop.orghttps://gitlab.freedesktop.org/polkit/polkit/-/commit/a2bf5c9c83b6ae46cbd5c779d3055bff81ded683
- www.oracle.comhttps://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuapr2022.html
- packetstormsecurity.comhttp://packetstormsecurity.com/files/166196/Polkit-pkexec-Local-Privilege-Escalation.html
- packetstormsecurity.comhttp://packetstormsecurity.com/files/166200/Polkit-pkexec-Privilege-Escalation.html
- www.suse.comhttps://www.suse.com/support/kb/doc/?id=000020564
- cert-portal.siemens.comhttps://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/pdf/ssa-330556.pdf
- www.starwindsoftware.comhttps://www.starwindsoftware.com/security/sw-20220818-0001/
- www.secpod.comhttps://www.secpod.com/blog/local-privilege-escalation-vulnerability-in-major-linux-distributions-cve-2021-4034/
- www.vicarius.iohttps://www.vicarius.io/vsociety/posts/pwnkit-pkexec-lpe-cve-2021-4034
- www.cisa.govhttps://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2021-4034
07 Fixed in
AlmaLinux 8
- polkit Fixed in 0.115-13.el8_5.2
- polkit-devel Fixed in 0.115-13.el8_5.2
- polkit-docs Fixed in 0.115-13.el8_5.2
- polkit-libs Fixed in 0.115-13.el8_5.2
Source: AlmaLinux, AlmaLinux OS. Copyright (c) 2023 AlmaLinux OS. Licensed under MIT License. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
Arch Linux
- polkit Fixed in 0.120-5
Source: Arch Linux Security Tracker, the Arch Linux security team. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
CloudLinux 8
- polkit Fixed in 0.115-13.el8_5.2
- polkit-devel Fixed in 0.115-13.el8_5.2
- polkit-docs Fixed in 0.115-13.el8_5.2
- polkit-libs Fixed in 0.115-13.el8_5.2
Derived from AlmaLinux 8. Partial coverage: only packages taken from AlmaLinux 8 are listed.
Source: CloudLinux errata, CloudLinux Inc. Derived from: AlmaLinux, AlmaLinux OS. Copyright (c) 2023 AlmaLinux OS. Licensed under MIT License. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
Debian 12
- policykit-1 Fixed in 0.105-31.1
Source: Debian Security Tracker, the Debian security team. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
Debian 13
- policykit-1 Fixed in 0.105-31.1
Source: Debian Security Tracker, the Debian security team. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
Debian 14
- policykit-1 Fixed in 0.105-31.1
Source: Debian Security Tracker, the Debian security team. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
- policykit-1 Fixed in 0.105-20ubuntu0.18.04.6
Source: Ubuntu, Canonical Ltd. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
- policykit-1 Fixed in 0.105-26ubuntu1.2
Source: Ubuntu, Canonical Ltd. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
- policykit-1 Fixed in 0.105-31ubuntu1
Source: Ubuntu, Canonical Ltd. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS
- policykit-1 Fixed in 0.105-4ubuntu3.14.04.6+esm1Available with Ubuntu Pro (Infra-only): https://ubuntu.com/pro
Source: Ubuntu, Canonical Ltd. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS
- policykit-1 Fixed in 0.105-14.1ubuntu0.5+esm1Available with Ubuntu Pro (Infra-only): https://ubuntu.com/pro
Source: Ubuntu, Canonical Ltd. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
A release or ecosystem missing from this list has no record here. It may be unaffected or not covered by the source. Source notices and licences.