Vulnerability Report

CVE-2021-4034

RCE CISA KEV Active

Title: Suse Manager Server RCE

RCE

Proof Of Concept

PoC Available for CVE-2021-4034

CWE Category CWE-125
Published Date Jan 28, 2022
Modified Date Nov 06, 2025
Exploit Status Available
Score 7.8 CVSS v3.1
Exploit Probability (EPSS)
88.06%

Vulnerability Summary

CVE-2021-4034: 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.

Impacted Vendors

A
a1webserver 1
O
oracle 2
P
polkit_project 1
S
suse 4
F
freedesktop 1
R
redhat 1
S
starwindsoftware 2
N
novell 1
S
siemens 2

Reference Links

http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/166196/Polkit-pkexec-Local-Privilege-Escalation.html http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/166200/Polkit-pkexec-Privilege-Escalation.html https://access.redhat.com/security/vulnerabilities/RHSB-2022-001 https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2025869 https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/pdf/ssa-330556.pdf https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/polkit/polkit/-/commit/a2bf5c9c83b6ae46cbd5c779d3055bff81ded683 https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuapr2022.html https://www.qualys.com/2022/01/25/cve-2021-4034/pwnkit.txt https://www.secpod.com/blog/local-privilege-escalation-vulnerability-in-major-linux-distributions-cve-2021-4034/ https://www.starwindsoftware.com/security/sw-20220818-0001/ https://www.suse.com/support/kb/doc/?id=000020564 http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/166196/Polkit-pkexec-Local-Privilege-Escalation.html http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/166200/Polkit-pkexec-Privilege-Escalation.html https://access.redhat.com/security/vulnerabilities/RHSB-2022-001 https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2025869 https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/pdf/ssa-330556.pdf https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/polkit/polkit/-/commit/a2bf5c9c83b6ae46cbd5c779d3055bff81ded683 https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuapr2022.html https://www.qualys.com/2022/01/25/cve-2021-4034/pwnkit.txt https://www.secpod.com/blog/local-privilege-escalation-vulnerability-in-major-linux-distributions-cve-2021-4034/ https://www.starwindsoftware.com/security/sw-20220818-0001/ https://www.suse.com/support/kb/doc/?id=000020564 https://www.vicarius.io/vsociety/posts/pwnkit-pkexec-lpe-cve-2021-4034 https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2021-4034
CVSS v3.1
Source Entity [email protected]
Severity HIGH
7.8
Attack Vector
LOCAL
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
N/A
Interaction
NONE
Confidentiality
N/A
Integrity
N/A
Availability
N/A
Scope
UNCHANGED
RAW VECTOR CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS v3.1
Source Entity 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
Severity HIGH
7.8
Attack Vector
LOCAL
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
N/A
Interaction
NONE
Confidentiality
N/A
Integrity
N/A
Availability
N/A
Scope
UNCHANGED
RAW VECTOR CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS v2.0
Source Entity [email protected]
Severity HIGH
7.2
Access Vector
N/A
Authentication
N/A
RAW VECTOR AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Associated Attack Patterns (CAPEC)

Total: Patterns

CVE-2021-4034 Exploits & PoCs (Proof Of Concept)

Exploit-DB https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/50689
View Code
MODIFIED

Vulnerability data or affected products updated.

PUBLISHED

Vulnerability first announced in NVD.

Attack Vector Matrix

Access Vector LOCAL
Complexity LOW
Privileges N/A
Interaction NONE
CVSS Vector String CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected Stack

No specific products linked.