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Fencer Intel
medium 5.9

CVE-2013-4394 json

The SetX11Keyboard function in systemd, when PolicyKit Local Authority (PKLA) is used to change the group permissions on the X Keyboard Ext…

published 13y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2013-4273

cvss
5.9
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 26%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The SetX11Keyboard function in systemd, when PolicyKit Local Authority (PKLA) is used to change the group permissions on the X Keyboard Extension (XKB) layouts description, allows local users in the group to modify the Xorg X11 Server configuration file and possibly gain privileges via vectors involving "special and control characters."

Patch / fix

  • systemd_project systemd 194
  • systemd Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 204-5

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2013-4394

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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-2013-4394 updated cvss 5.9

systemd: Improper sanitization of invalid XKB layouts descriptions (privilege escalation when custom PolicyKit local authority file used)

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 systemd, libgudev1, systemd-libs, systemd-sysv, systemd-python, systemd-networkd, +2 more
    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

0.33% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 26% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 5.9 AV:L/AC:H/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-276 Incorrect Default Permissions

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.