CVE-2021-4034 (GCVE-0-2021-4034)

Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2022-01-28 00:00 – Updated: 2025-10-21 23:15
VLAI CISA KEV
Summary
A local privilege escalation vulnerability was found on polkit's pkexec utility. The pkexec application is a setuid tool designed to allow unprivileged users to run commands as privileged users according predefined policies. The current version of pkexec doesn't handle the calling parameters count correctly and ends trying to execute environment variables as commands. An attacker can leverage this by crafting environment variables in such a way it'll induce pkexec to execute arbitrary code. When successfully executed the attack can cause a local privilege escalation given unprivileged users administrative rights on the target machine.
Severity
7.8 (High)
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CWE
Assigner
References
Impacted products
Vendor Product Version
n/a polkit Affected: all
CISA KEV
Known Exploited Vulnerability - GCVE BCP-07 Compliant
KEV entry ID: 0a662f09-c230-4d89-be13-4975ab3a3528

Vulnerability ID: CVE-2021-4034

Status: Confirmed

Status Updated: 2022-06-27 00:00 UTC

Exploited: Yes

Timestamps
First Seen: 2022-06-27
Asserted: 2022-06-27
Scope
Notes: KEV entry: Red Hat Polkit Out-of-Bounds Read and Write Vulnerability | Affected: Red Hat / Polkit | Description: The Red Hat polkit pkexec utility contains an out-of-bounds read and write vulnerability that allows for privilege escalation with administrative rights. | Required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions. | Due date: 2022-07-18 | Known ransomware campaign use (KEV): Unknown | Notes (KEV): https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-4034
Evidence

Type: Vendor Report

Signal: Successful Exploitation

Confidence: 80%

Source: cisa-kev

Details
Cwes CWE-787
Feed CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog
Product Polkit
Due Date 2022-07-18
Date Added 2022-06-27
Vendorproject Red Hat
Vulnerabilityname Red Hat Polkit Out-of-Bounds Read and Write Vulnerability
Knownransomwarecampaignuse Unknown
References
Created: 2026-02-02 13:25 UTC | Updated: 2026-02-06 07:53 UTC
Show details on NVD website
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      "cveMetadata": "{\"cveId\": \"CVE-2021-4034\", \"state\": \"PUBLISHED\", \"dateUpdated\": \"2025-10-21T23:15:48.549Z\", \"dateReserved\": \"2021-11-29T00:00:00.000Z\", \"assignerOrgId\": \"53f830b8-0a3f-465b-8143-3b8a9948e749\", \"datePublished\": \"2022-01-28T00:00:00.000Z\", \"assignerShortName\": \"redhat\"}",
      "dataType": "CVE_RECORD",
      "dataVersion": "5.1"
    }
  }
}


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Tags
Taxonomy of the tags.





Forecast uses a logistic model when the trend is rising, or an exponential decay model when the trend is falling. Fitted via linearized least squares.

Sightings

Author Source Type Date Other

Nomenclature

  • Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
  • Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
  • Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
  • Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
  • Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.


Detection rules are retrieved from Rulezet.