CVE-2021-3560 Red Hat Polkit Incorrect Authorization

What is CVE-2021-3560?

CVE-2021-3560 is a high-severity vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 16 Feb 2022. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

It was found that polkit could be tricked into bypassing the credential checks for D-Bus requests, elevating the privileges of the requestor to the root user. This flaw could be used by an unprivileged local attacker to, for example, create a new local administrator. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to data confidentiality and integrity as well as system availability.

Weakness: CWE-754, CWE-863

Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-3560?

It affects 6 products.

Products include Canonical Ubuntu Linux, Debian Debian Linux, Polkit Project Polkit, Redhat Openshift Container Platform, Redhat Virtualization, Redhat Virtualization Host.

How do I fix CVE-2021-3560?

Apply the vendor's patch. US federal agencies must fix it by 2 Jun 2023.

Is CVE-2021-3560 being exploited?

Yes. Attackers have exploited CVE-2021-3560 in the wild since at least 12 May 2023.

Public exploit code: 1 Metasploit module, 1 Exploit-DB entry and 33 proofs of concept on GitHub.

Other vulnerabilities in Canonical Ubuntu Linux

• CVE-2020-11651 SaltStack Salt Authentication Bypass Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2020-7247 OpenSMTPD Remote Code Execution Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2019-16928 Exim Out-of-bounds Write Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2018-6789 Exim Buffer Overflow Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2015-2590 Oracle Java SE and Java SE Embedded Remote Code Execution Exploited Critical 9.8

All Canonical Ubuntu Linux vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2021-3560, GHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r, MGASA-2021-0244, OESA-2021-1230, RHSA-2021:2236, RHSA-2021:2237 and 9 more.