Description
spice-gtk 0.14, and possibly other versions, invokes the polkit authority using the insecure polkit_unix_process_new API function, 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, a related issue to CVE-2013-4288.
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | spice-gtk | 0.21-0nocelt1 | — |
| Debian 13 | spice-gtk | 0.21-0nocelt1 | — |
| Debian 12 | spice-gtk | 0.21-0nocelt1 | — |
Red Hat
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| RHEL 6 | spice-gtk +5 | 0.14-7.el6_4.3 | RHSA-2013:1273 |
Advisories 1
- RHSA-2013:1273 Red Hat Security Advisory: spice-gtk security update Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSA) · Jun 26, 2026
References
- openSUSE-SU-2013:1562 vendor-advisory
- 54947 third-party-advisory
- [oss-security] 20130918 Re: Fwd: [vs-plain] polkit races mailing-list
- RHSA-2013:1273 vendor-advisory
- 62538 vdb-entry