Ubuntu 13.04 USN-1953-1 Moderate: Polkit Authorization Bypass

ubuntu

September 18, 2013

polkit could be tricked into giving out improper authorization.

Summary

polkit could be tricked into giving out improper authorization.

Software Description:

- policykit-1: framework for managing administrative policies and privileges

Details:

It was discovered that polkit didn't allow applications to use the pkcheck

tool in a way which prevented a race condition in the UID lookup. A local

attacker could use this flaw to possibly escalate privileges.

Topics Covered

security advisory moderate severity local attack ubuntu authorization bypass polkit policykit-1

Update Instructions

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following
package versions:

Ubuntu 13.04:
  policykit-1                     0.105-1ubuntu1.1

Ubuntu 12.10:
  policykit-1                     0.104-2ubuntu1.1

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS:
  policykit-1                     0.104-1ubuntu1.1

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS:
  policykit-1                     0.96-2ubuntu0.2

In general, a standard system update will make all the necessary changes.