# CVE-2014-5033: Race condition in n/a

> Local attackers can exploit a race condition in KDE's D-Bus communication to bypass access restrictions and escalate privileges.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.9 (`AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 19 Aug 2014
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DLA-76-1, DSA-3004-1, GHSA-gh63-q3pg-7q7r, MGASA-2014-0327, RHSA-2014:1359, UBUNTU-CVE-2014-5033, USN-2304-1

## What is CVE-2014-5033?

CVE-2014-5033 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 19 Aug 2014. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

KDE kdelibs before 4.14 and kauth before 5.1 does not properly use D-Bus for communication with a polkit authority, which allows local users to bypass intended access restrictions by leveraging a PolkitUnixProcess PolkitSubject race condition via a (1) setuid process or (2) pkexec process, related to CVE-2013-4288 and "PID reuse race conditions."

Weakness: CWE-362 (Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2014-5033?

It affects 4 products.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `polkit-qt` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:0.103.0-10.el7_0 |
| `polkit-qt-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:0.103.0-10.el7_0 |
| `polkit-qt-devel` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:0.103.0-10.el7_0 |
| `polkit-qt-doc` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:0.103.0-10.el7_0 |
| `polkit-qt` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:0.103.0-10.el7_0 |
| `polkit-qt-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:0.103.0-10.el7_0 |
| `polkit-qt-devel` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:0.103.0-10.el7_0 |
| `polkit-qt-doc` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:0.103.0-10.el7_0 |
| `polkit-qt` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::server | All versions | 0:0.103.0-10.el7_0 |
| `polkit-qt-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::server | All versions | 0:0.103.0-10.el7_0 |
| `polkit-qt-devel` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::server | All versions | 0:0.103.0-10.el7_0 |
| `polkit-qt-doc` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::server | All versions | 0:0.103.0-10.el7_0 |
| `polkit-qt` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::workstation | All versions | 0:0.103.0-10.el7_0 |
| `polkit-qt-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::workstation | All versions | 0:0.103.0-10.el7_0 |
| `polkit-qt-devel` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::workstation | All versions | 0:0.103.0-10.el7_0 |
| `polkit-qt-doc` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::workstation | All versions | 0:0.103.0-10.el7_0 |

Products: Canonical Ubuntu Linux, Debian Kde4libs, Kde Kauth, Kde Kdelibs.

## How do I fix CVE-2014-5033?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2014-5033 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2014-5033 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Canonical Ubuntu Linux

- [CVE-2020-11651](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-11651/): SaltStack Salt Authentication Bypass (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2020-7247](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-7247/): OpenSMTPD Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2019-16928](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-16928/): Exim Out-of-bounds Write (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2018-6789](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6789/): Exim Buffer Overflow (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2015-2590](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-2590/): Oracle Java SE and Java SE Embedded Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2014-5033 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2014-5033 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 19 Aug 2014. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2014-5033 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Canonical Ubuntu Linux. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-5033/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-5033/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2014-5033
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2014-5033
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2014-5033

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-5033/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.