Description
systemd 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, 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 | systemd | 204-5 | — |
| Debian 13 | systemd | 204-5 | — |
| Debian 12 | systemd | 204-5 | — |
| Debian 7 | systemd | 44-11+deb7u4 | DSA-2777-1 |
Advisories 1
- DSA-2777-1 systemd - several Debian Security (DSA / DLA) · Mar 9, 2026
References
- USN-1961-1 vendor-advisory
- [oss-security] 20130918 Re: Fwd: [vs-plain] polkit races mailing-list
- DSA-2777 vendor-advisory
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1006680