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CVE-2021-4034NVD
Vulnerability Summary
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 v3.1 Base Metrics — Score 7.8 (HIGH)
Attack VectorLocal
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredLow
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityHigh
IntegrityHigh
AvailabilityHigh
Affected & Patched Versions
- Polkit Project Polkit < 121
- Redhat Enterprise Linux Server Update Services For Sap Solutions
- Redhat Enterprise Linux
- Redhat Enterprise Linux Desktop
- Redhat Enterprise Linux Eus
- Redhat Enterprise Linux For Ibm Z Systems
- Redhat Enterprise Linux For Ibm Z Systems Eus
- Redhat Enterprise Linux For Power Big Endian
- Redhat Enterprise Linux For Power Little Endian
- Redhat Enterprise Linux For Power Little Endian Eus
- Redhat Enterprise Linux For Scientific Computing
- Redhat Enterprise Linux Server
- Redhat Enterprise Linux Server Aus
- Redhat Enterprise Linux Server Eus
- Redhat Enterprise Linux Server Tus
- Redhat Enterprise Linux Workstation
- Canonical Ubuntu Linux
- Suse Enterprise Storage
- Suse Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing
- Suse Manager Proxy
- Suse Manager Server
- Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop
- Suse Linux Enterprise Server
- Suse Linux Enterprise Workstation Extension
- Oracle Http Server
- Oracle Zfs Storage Appliance Kit
- Siemens Sinumerik Edge < 3.3.0
- Siemens Scalance Lpe9403 Firmware < 2.0
- Starwindsoftware Command Center
- Starwindsoftware Starwind Virtual San
- Polkit Project Polkit 121
- Siemens Sinumerik Edge 3.3.0
- Siemens Scalance Lpe9403 Firmware 2.0
External References
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/166196/Polkit-pkexec-Local-Privilege-Escalation.html
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/166200/Polkit-pkexec-Privilege-Escalation.html
- https://access.redhat.com/security/vulnerabilities/RHSB-2022-001
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2025869
- https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/pdf/ssa-330556.pdf
- https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/polkit/polkit/-/commit/a2bf5c9c83b6ae46cbd5c779d3055bff81ded683
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuapr2022.html
- https://www.qualys.com/2022/01/25/cve-2021-4034/pwnkit.txt
- https://www.secpod.com/blog/local-privilege-escalation-vulnerability-in-major-linux-distributions-cve-2021-4034/
- https://www.starwindsoftware.com/security/sw-20220818-0001/
- https://www.suse.com/support/kb/doc/?id=000020564
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/166196/Polkit-pkexec-Local-Privilege-Escalation.html
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/166200/Polkit-pkexec-Privilege-Escalation.html
- https://access.redhat.com/security/vulnerabilities/RHSB-2022-001
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2025869
- https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/pdf/ssa-330556.pdf
- https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/polkit/polkit/-/commit/a2bf5c9c83b6ae46cbd5c779d3055bff81ded683
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuapr2022.html
- https://www.qualys.com/2022/01/25/cve-2021-4034/pwnkit.txt
- https://www.secpod.com/blog/local-privilege-escalation-vulnerability-in-major-linux-distributions-cve-2021-4034/
- https://www.starwindsoftware.com/security/sw-20220818-0001/
- https://www.suse.com/support/kb/doc/?id=000020564
- https://www.vicarius.io/vsociety/posts/pwnkit-pkexec-lpe-cve-2021-4034
- https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2021-4034