REDHAT-BUG-1245684: Medium severity polkit polkit vulnerability
It was reported that polkit has a bug, that leads to a minor denial of service, or code execution/privilege escalation. The only privilege necessary is ability to send D-Bus messages, not even necessarily directly to polkitd (usually privileged services ask polkitd for authorization based of a client request: client<->D-Bus<->service<->D-Bus<->polkitd); the attacker does not need special polkit status. This bug allows a local user (a person on a multi-user system, or a daemon account after successfully attacking a daemon over the network) to corrupt memory of polkitd. Corrupting polkitd memory can lead to a crash (known to happen), which is a minor DoS: a specific request being handled during the crash will not get a reply, but polkitd will then be automatically started when next polkit request arrives. In general corrupting memory can lead to arbitrary code execution as polkitd (no proof of concept exists but I can see no reason for this to be impossible), controlling polkitd allows the attacker to grant to anyone access to any polkit-controlled service, including the ability to run any command as root via pkexec.
Initially reported in https://bugzilla.redhat.com/showbug.cgi?id=910262 The patches are attached.
Affected Software
Event History
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the severity of REDHAT-BUG-1245684?
REDHAT-BUG-1245684 has a minor severity level associated with potential denial of service and privilege escalation issues.
How does REDHAT-BUG-1245684 affect polkit?
REDHAT-BUG-1245684 causes polkit to potentially allow denial of service or unauthorized code execution due to improper handling of D-Bus messages.
Who is affected by REDHAT-BUG-1245684?
Any user or system component that can send D-Bus messages to polkit may be affected by REDHAT-BUG-1245684.
How can I resolve the issue described in REDHAT-BUG-1245684?
To resolve the issue in REDHAT-BUG-1245684, it is advisable to update to the latest version of polkit that addresses this vulnerability.
Is there a workaround for REDHAT-BUG-1245684?
There are no specific workarounds mentioned for REDHAT-BUG-1245684, so upgrading to the patched version is recommended.