Ubuntu 18.10/18.04 LTS Security Advisory: PolicyKit Access Risk

ubuntu

April 3, 2019

PolicyKit could allow unintended access.

Summary

PolicyKit could allow unintended access.

Software Description:

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

Details:

It was discovered that PolicyKit incorrectly relied on the fork() system

call in the Linux kernel being atomic. A local attacker could possibly use

this issue to gain access to services that have cached authorizations.

Topics Covered

security advisory access issue local attack ubuntu policykit

Update Instructions

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

Ubuntu 18.10:
  libpolkit-backend-1-0           0.105-21ubuntu0.4
  policykit-1                     0.105-21ubuntu0.4

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS:
  libpolkit-backend-1-0           0.105-20ubuntu0.18.04.5
  policykit-1                     0.105-20ubuntu0.18.04.5

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS:
  libpolkit-backend-1-0           0.105-14.1ubuntu0.5
  policykit-1                     0.105-14.1ubuntu0.5

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS:
  libpolkit-backend-1-0           0.105-4ubuntu3.14.04.6
  policykit-1                     0.105-4ubuntu3.14.04.6

After a standard system update you need to reboot your computer to make
all the necessary changes.