Polkit
CVE-2018-1116
MEDIUM
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A01:2025 - Broken Access Control
ASVS 5.0
V8 - Authorization Authorization verification
MITRE ATT&CK
1 technique across 1 tactic: Defense Evasion The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Impact | CVSS score of 4.4 (MEDIUM). Attack characteristics: local attack vector, low complexity, low privileges required, no user interaction not required. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | Successful exploitation could compromise the medium-severity affected system. |
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Alert meAnalysisAI
A flaw was found in polkit before version 0.116. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.4), this vulnerability is low attack complexity.
RemediationAI
A vendor patch is available. Apply the latest security update as soon as possible. Apply vendor patches when available. Implement network segmentation and monitoring as interim mitigations.
Affects your stack
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Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
This vulnerability is classified under CWE-285. A flaw was found in polkit before version 0.116. The implementation of the polkit_backend_interactive_authority_check_authorization function in polkitd allows to test for authentication and trigger authentication of unrelated processes owned by other users. This may result in a local DoS and information disclosure. Affected products include: Debian Debian Linux, Canonical Ubuntu Linux, Polkit Project Polkit. Version information: version 0.116..
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Severity by source
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:L
Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.
CVSS VectorNVD
DescriptionNVD
A flaw was found in polkit before version 0.116. The implementation of the polkit_backend_interactive_authority_check_authorization function in polkitd allows to test for authentication and trigger authentication of unrelated processes owned by other users. This may result in a local DoS and information disclosure.
Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Authentication bypass attacks exploit flaws in the verification mechanisms that control access to systems and applications.
Information disclosure occurs when an application unintentionally exposes sensitive data that aids attackers in reconnaissance or directly compromises security.
Affected Products (CPE)NVD
A flaw was found in PolicyKit (aka polkit) 0.115 that allows a user with a uid greater than INT_MAX to successfully exec
pkexec, when used with --user nonpriv, allows local users to escape to the parent session via a crafted TIOCSTI ioctl ca
Race condition in PolicyKit (aka polkit) allows local users to bypass intended PolicyKit restrictions and gain privilege
In PolicyKit (aka polkit) 0.115, the "start time" protection mechanism can be bypassed because fork() is not atomic, and
Polkit's polkit-agent-helper-1 setuid binary fails to bound input length on stdin, allowing local authenticated users to
The polkit_backend_action_pool_init function in polkitbackend/polkitbackendactionpool.c in PolicyKit (aka polkit) before
Integer overflow in the authentication_agent_new_cookie function in PolicyKit (aka polkit) before 0.113 allows local use
PolicyKit (aka polkit) before 0.113 allows local users to cause a denial of service (memory corruption and polkitd daemo
The authentication_agent_new function in polkitbackend/polkitbackendinteractiveauthority.c in PolicyKit (aka polkit) bef
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
GitHub PoC
Exploit-DB