FKIE_CVE-2026-41651

Vulnerability from fkie_nvd - Published: 2026-04-22 14:17 - Updated: 2026-04-24 13:43
Severity ?
8.8 (High) - CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Summary
PackageKit is a a D-Bus abstraction layer that allows the user to manage packages in a secure way using a cross-distro, cross-architecture API. PackageKit between and including versions 1.0.2 and 1.3.4 is vulnerable to a time-of-check time-of-use (TOCTOU) race condition on transaction flags that allows unprivileged users to install packages as root and thus leads to a local privilege escalation. This is patched in version 1.3.5. A local unprivileged user can install arbitrary RPM packages as root, including executing RPM scriptlets, without authentication. The vulnerability is a TOCTOU race condition on `transaction->cached_transaction_flags` combined with a silent state-machine guard that discards illegal backward transitions while leaving corrupted flags in place. Three bugs exist in `src/pk-transaction.c`: 1. Unconditional flag overwrite (line 4036): `InstallFiles()` writes caller-supplied flags to `transaction->cached_transaction_flags` without checking whether the transaction has already been authorized/started. A second call blindly overwrites the flags even while the transaction is RUNNING. 2. Silent state-transition rejection (lines 873–882): `pk_transaction_set_state()` silently discards backward state transitions (e.g. `RUNNING` → `WAITING_FOR_AUTH`) but the flag overwrite at step 1 already happened. The transaction continues running with corrupted flags. 3. Late flag read at execution time (lines 2273–2277): The scheduler's idle callback reads cached_transaction_flags at dispatch time, not at authorization time. If flags were overwritten between authorization and execution, the backend sees the attacker's flags.
References
security-advisories@github.comhttps://github.com/PackageKit/PackageKit/blob/04057883189efa225a7c785591aa87cb299782f8/src/pk-transaction.c#L2273-L2277Product
security-advisories@github.comhttps://github.com/PackageKit/PackageKit/blob/04057883189efa225a7c785591aa87cb299782f8/src/pk-transaction.c#L4036Product
security-advisories@github.comhttps://github.com/PackageKit/PackageKit/blob/04057883189efa225a7c785591aa87cb299782f8/src/pk-transaction.c#L873-L882Product
security-advisories@github.comhttps://github.com/PackageKit/PackageKit/security/advisories/GHSA-f55j-vvr9-69xvVendor Advisory, Exploit
security-advisories@github.comhttps://github.security.telekom.com/2026/04/pack2theroot-linux-local-privilege-escalation.htmlExploit, Third Party Advisory
af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/04/22/6Mailing List, Patch, Third Party Advisory
134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0https://github.security.telekom.com/2026/04/pack2theroot-linux-local-privilege-escalation.htmlExploit, Third Party Advisory
Impacted products
Vendor Product Version
packagekit_project packagekit *
To clipboard 

{
  "configurations": [
    {
      "nodes": [
        {
          "cpeMatch": [
            {
              "criteria": "cpe:2.3:a:packagekit_project:packagekit:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
              "matchCriteriaId": "533CCCB1-C825-4DE0-8A4C-1947F07D8E62",
              "versionEndExcluding": "1.3.5",
              "versionStartIncluding": "1.0.2",
              "vulnerable": true
            }
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          "operator": "OR"
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  "cveTags": [],
  "descriptions": [
    {
      "lang": "en",
      "value": "PackageKit is a a D-Bus abstraction layer that allows the user to manage packages in a secure way using a cross-distro, cross-architecture API. PackageKit between and including versions 1.0.2 and 1.3.4 is vulnerable to a time-of-check time-of-use (TOCTOU) race condition on transaction flags that allows unprivileged users to install packages as root and thus leads to a local privilege escalation. This is patched in version 1.3.5.\n\nA local unprivileged user can install arbitrary RPM packages as root, including executing RPM scriptlets, without authentication. The vulnerability is a TOCTOU race condition on `transaction-\u003ecached_transaction_flags`  combined with a silent state-machine guard that discards illegal backward transitions while leaving corrupted flags in place. Three bugs exist in `src/pk-transaction.c`:\n1. Unconditional flag overwrite (line 4036): `InstallFiles()` writes caller-supplied flags to `transaction-\u003ecached_transaction_flags` without checking whether the transaction has already been  authorized/started. A second call blindly overwrites the flags even while the transaction is RUNNING.\n2. Silent state-transition rejection (lines 873\u2013882): `pk_transaction_set_state()` silently discards backward state transitions (e.g. `RUNNING` \u2192 `WAITING_FOR_AUTH`) but the flag overwrite at step 1 already happened. The transaction continues running with corrupted flags.\n3. Late flag read at execution time (lines 2273\u20132277): The scheduler\u0027s idle callback reads cached_transaction_flags at dispatch time, not at authorization time. If flags were overwritten between authorization and execution, the backend sees the attacker\u0027s flags."
    }
  ],
  "id": "CVE-2026-41651",
  "lastModified": "2026-04-24T13:43:37.347",
  "metrics": {
    "cvssMetricV31": [
      {
        "cvssData": {
          "attackComplexity": "LOW",
          "attackVector": "LOCAL",
          "availabilityImpact": "HIGH",
          "baseScore": 8.8,
          "baseSeverity": "HIGH",
          "confidentialityImpact": "HIGH",
          "integrityImpact": "HIGH",
          "privilegesRequired": "LOW",
          "scope": "CHANGED",
          "userInteraction": "NONE",
          "vectorString": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H",
          "version": "3.1"
        },
        "exploitabilityScore": 2.0,
        "impactScore": 6.0,
        "source": "security-advisories@github.com",
        "type": "Secondary"
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  "published": "2026-04-22T14:17:04.617",
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      "tags": [
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      "tags": [
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    }
  ],
  "sourceIdentifier": "security-advisories@github.com",
  "vulnStatus": "Analyzed",
  "weaknesses": [
    {
      "description": [
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "value": "CWE-367"
        }
      ],
      "source": "security-advisories@github.com",
      "type": "Secondary"
    }
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}


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