USN-5252-1: PolicyKit vulnerability

25 January 2022

policykit-1 could be made to run programs as an administrator.

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Releases

Packages

  • policykit-1 - framework for managing administrative policies and privileges

Details

It was discovered that the PolicyKit pkexec tool incorrectly handled
command-line arguments. A local attacker could use this issue to escalate
privileges to an administrator.

Reduce your security exposure

Ubuntu Pro provides ten-year security coverage to 25,000+ packages in Main and Universe repositories, and it is free for up to five machines.

Learn more about Ubuntu Pro

Update instructions

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package versions:

Ubuntu 21.10
Ubuntu 20.04
Ubuntu 18.04

In general, a standard system update will make all the necessary changes.

References

Related notices

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Further reading