CVE-2021-3560
Published 2022-02-16 · Updated 2026-06-17 · Source secalert@redhat.com
Summary
CVE-2021-3560 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.8) vulnerability in Red Hat Polkit. CISA added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on May 12, 2023, which means exploitation in the wild has been confirmed; US federal agencies had to remediate it by June 2, 2023. CISA does not currently list it as used in ransomware campaigns. Red Hat has 9 vulnerabilities in the KEV catalog, 4 of them linked to ransomware.
All 9 known-exploited Red Hat vulnerabilities →Description
It was found that polkit could be tricked into bypassing the credential checks for D-Bus requests, elevating the privileges of the requestor to the root user. This flaw could be used by an unprivileged local attacker to, for example, create a new local administrator. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to data confidentiality and integrity as well as system availability.
CVSS vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CISA Known-Exploited Vulnerability
Product: Red Hat — Polkit
Name: Red Hat Polkit Incorrect Authorization Vulnerability
Date added: 2023-05-12 · Due: 2023-06-02
Required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.
References
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/172836/polkit-Authentication-Bypass.html
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/172846/Facebook-Fizz-Denial-Of-Service.html
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1961710
- https://github.blog/2021-06-10-privilege-escalation-polkit-root-on-linux-with-bug/
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/172836/polkit-Authentication-Bypass.html
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/172846/Facebook-Fizz-Denial-Of-Service.html
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1961710
- https://github.blog/2021-06-10-privilege-escalation-polkit-root-on-linux-with-bug/

