CVE-2021-3560It was found that polkit could be tricked into bypassing the credential checks for D-Bus requests, elevating the privileges of the…
- 7.8HighCVSS base score
- 21.8%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 2.3% of all CVEs
- YesKnown exploitedin CISA's KEV since 12 May 2023
- 2Public exploitsMetasploit, Nuclei and Exploit-DB
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.
Exploited in the wild
CISA lists this vulnerability in its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog as Red Hat Polkit Incorrect Authorization Vulnerability.
- Added
- 12 May 2023
- Fix due (US federal)
- 2 Jun 2023
- Used by ransomware
- Not known
Apply updates per vendor instructions.
ENISA's EU Vulnerability Database lists it as exploited, from CISA's KEV, since 12 May 2023.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. The public collections list a Metasploit module and an Exploit-DB entry for it. CISA's SSVC rates its exploitation: it is being exploited.
Show the exploits2
Metasploit modules1 module
- Polkit D-Bus Authentication Bypass (Metasploit module) (opens in a new tab)
exploit/linux/local/polkit_dbus_auth_bypassRank excellentdisclosed 3 Jun 2021
Exploit-DB1 entry
- Polkit 0.105-26 0.117-2 - Local Privilege Escalation (Exploit-DB entry) (opens in a new tab)
EDB-ID 50011local, linuxpublished 15 Jun 2021Verified
Modules, templates and exploits as listed by the Metasploit Framework (BSD-3-Clause), ProjectDiscovery's Nuclei templates (MIT) and the Exploit Database (GPLv2), read once a day. Where the data comes from
Timeline
ID reserved
By redhat
- 9 months later
· 9 months later
Published
- 15 months later
· 15 months later
Added to CISA KEV
Known exploited in the wild
- 2 years later
· 2 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| CISA-ADPADP (enrichment) | 3.1 | High7.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Analyzed | 3.1 | High7.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 21.8% · top 2.3% of all CVEs (13 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.8.
Affected products
polkit
- affected polkit 0.119
References
References5
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1961710 (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- https://github.blog/2021-06-10-privilege-escalation-polkit-root-on-linux-with-bug/ (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/172836/polkit-Authentication-Bypass.html (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/172846/Facebook-Fizz-Denial-Of-Service.html (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2021-3560 (opens in a new tab)government-resource
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- CISA KEV catalog (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2021-26871 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2021-3560)Record last updated .