# CVE-2026-4897: Polkit: polkit: denial of service via unbounded input processing through standard input > A local attacker can cause a system-wide denial of service by sending excessively long input to the polkit-agent-helper-1 binary, triggering an out-of-memory condition. - **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`) - **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:** 26 Mar 2026 - **Updated:** 10 Sep 2026 - **Also known as:** ALSA-2026:59997, AZL-81558, CLSA-2026-1779368297, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-4897, GHSA-v4jf-wwp4-588q, MGASA-2026-0085, OESA-2026-1814, RHSA-2026:59997, RLSA-2026:59997, SUSE-SU-2026:1424-1, SUSE-SU-2026:1425-1, SUSE-SU-2026:1655-1, SUSE-SU-2026:20969-1, SUSE-SU-2026:21032-1, SUSE-SU-2026:22054-1, SUSE-SU-2026:22090-1, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-4897, openSUSE-SU-2026:20925-1 ## What is CVE-2026-4897? CVE-2026-4897 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Redhat Enterprise Linux, published on 26 Mar 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim. ### Official description A flaw was found in polkit. A local user can exploit this by providing a specially crafted, excessively long input to the `polkit-agent-helper-1` setuid binary via standard input (stdin). This unbounded input can lead to an out-of-memory (OOM) condition, resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS) for the system. Weakness: CWE-770 (Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling) ## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-4897? It affects 3 products. | Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | `polkit` | AlmaLinux:10 | All versions | 125-4.el10_2.1 | | `polkit-devel` | AlmaLinux:10 | All versions | 125-4.el10_2.1 | | `polkit-docs` | AlmaLinux:10 | All versions | 125-4.el10_2.1 | | `polkit-libs` | AlmaLinux:10 | All versions | 125-4.el10_2.1 | | `polkit` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:10.2 | All versions | 0:125-4.el10_2.1 | | `polkit-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:10.2 | All versions | 0:125-4.el10_2.1 | | `polkit-debugsource` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:10.2 | All versions | 0:125-4.el10_2.1 | | `polkit-devel` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:10.2 | All versions | 0:125-4.el10_2.1 | | `polkit-docs` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:10.2 | All versions | 0:125-4.el10_2.1 | | `polkit-libs` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:10.2 | All versions | 0:125-4.el10_2.1 | | `polkit-libs-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:10.2 | All versions | 0:125-4.el10_2.1 | | `polkit` | Rocky Linux:10 | All versions | 0:125-4.el10_2.1 | | `polkit` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Micro 5.5 | All versions | 121-150500.3.11.1 | | `polkit` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 | All versions | 121-150500.3.11.1 | | `polkit` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 16.0 | All versions | 123-160000.3.1 | | `polkit` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server LTSS Extended Security 12 SP5 | All versions | 0.113-5.35.1 | | `polkit` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications 16.0 | All versions | 123-160000.3.1 | | `polkit` | SUSE:Linux Micro 6.0 | All versions | 121-4.1 | | `polkit` | SUSE:Linux Micro 6.1 | All versions | 121-slfo.1.1_3.1 | | `expat` | SUSE:Linux Micro 6.2 | All versions | 2.7.1-160000.5.1 | | `polkit` | SUSE:Linux Micro 6.2 | All versions | 123-160000.3.1 | | `polkit` | openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | All versions | 121-150500.3.11.1 | | `polkit` | openSUSE:Leap 16.0 | All versions | 123-160000.3.1 | Products: Freedesktop Polkit, Redhat Enterprise Linux, Redhat Openshift Container Platform. ## How do I fix CVE-2026-4897? Apply the vendor's patch. ## Is CVE-2026-4897 being exploited? There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-4897 in the wild and no public exploit code. ## Other vulnerabilities in Redhat Enterprise Linux - [CVE-2016-2568](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-2568/): Privilege escalation in n/a (high 7.8) ## Fix prompt for AI coding agents ```text Check this codebase for CVE-2026-4897 and fix it if it is affected. What it is: CVE-2026-4897 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Redhat Enterprise Linux, published on 26 Mar 2026. 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-2026-4897 in the wild and no public exploit code. Affected product: Redhat Enterprise 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-2026-4897/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-4897/index.md) ``` ## Sources - CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-4897 - NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-4897 - OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-4897 --- From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-4897/ Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.