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."
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 7 | kde4libs | 4:4.8.4-4+deb7u1 | DSA-3004-1 |
| Debian 6.0 | kde4libs | 4:4.4.5-2+squeeze4 | DLA-76-1 |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 14.04 LTS | kde4libs | 4:4.13.2a-0ubuntu0.3 | USN-2304-1 |
Red Hat
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| RHEL 7 | polkit-qt +2 | 0.103.0-10.el7_0 | RHSA-2014:1359 |
Oracle Linux
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oracle Linux 7 | polkit-qt +2 | 0.103.0-10.el7_0 | ELSA-2014-1359 |
Advisories 5
- RHSA-2014:1359 Red Hat Security Advisory: polkit-qt security update Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSA) · Jun 26, 2026
- USN-2304-1 kde4libs vulnerability Ubuntu Security Notices (USN) · Apr 22, 2026
- DLA-76-1 kde4libs - security update Debian Security (DSA / DLA) · Mar 9, 2026
- DSA-3004-1 kde4libs - security update Debian Security (DSA / DLA) · Mar 9, 2026
- ELSA-2014-1359 Important: polkit-qt security update (Oracle Linux 7) Oracle Linux Security Advisories (ELSA) · Oct 6, 2014
References
- 60385 third-party-advisory
- RHSA-2014:1359 vendor-advisory
- DSA-3004 vendor-advisory
- USN-2304-1 vendor-advisory
- http://quickgit.kde.org/?p=kauth.git&a=commit&h=341b7d84b6d9c03cf56905cb277b47e11c81482a
- http://www.kde.org/info/security/advisory-20140730-1.txt
- 60654 third-party-advisory
- openSUSE-SU-2014:0981 vendor-advisory
- 60633 third-party-advisory
- http://quickgit.kde.org/?p=kdelibs.git&a=commitdiff&h=e4e7b53b71e2659adaf52691d4accc3594203b23