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Fencer Intel
high 7.2

CVE-2013-4288 json

Race condition in PolicyKit (aka polkit) allows local users to bypass intended PolicyKit restrictions and gain privileges by starting a set…

published 2013-10-03 13 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2013-4184

cvss
7.2
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.3%
EPSS 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 27%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Race condition in PolicyKit (aka polkit) allows local users to bypass intended PolicyKit restrictions and gain privileges by starting a setuid or pkexec process before the authorization check is performed, related to (1) the polkit_unix_process_new API function, (2) the dbus API, or (3) the --process (unix-process) option for authorization to pkcheck.

Patch / fix

  • polkit_project polkit 0.112.1
  • policykit-1 Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 0.105-3+nmu1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2013-4288

  • polkit RHEL 6 0.96-5.el6_4
  • polkit-desktop-policy RHEL 6 0.96-5.el6_4

red hat advisories RHSA-2013:1270

  • systemd openSUSE Tumbleweed 228-17.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10356-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2013-4288 updated cvss 6.9

polkit: unix-process subject for authorization is racy

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) polkit 0.96-5.el6_4, polkit-desktop-policy 0.96-5.el6_4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Optional (v. 6) polkit 0.96-5.el6_4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node (v. 6) polkit 0.96-5.el6_4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) polkit 0.96-5.el6_4, polkit-desktop-policy 0.96-5.el6_4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) polkit 0.96-5.el6_4, polkit-desktop-policy 0.96-5.el6_4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) polkit 0.96-5.el6_4, polkit-desktop-policy 0.96-5.el6_4
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2013:1270
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 polkit
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

0.34% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 27% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 7.2 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-362 Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.