7.8 High
CVSS3
Attack Vector
LOCAL
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
7.2 High
CVSS2
Access Vector
LOCAL
Access Complexity
LOW
Authentication
NONE
Confidentiality Impact
COMPLETE
Integrity Impact
COMPLETE
Availability Impact
COMPLETE
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
It's a privilege escalation vulnerability:
> Linux users on Tuesday got a major dose of bad news – a 12-year-old vulnerability in a system tool called Polkit gives attackers unfettered root privileges on machines running most major distributions of the open source operating system.
>
> Previously called PolicyKit, Polkit manages system-wide privileges in Unix-like OSes. It provides a mechanism for nonprivileged processes to safely interact with privileged processes. It also allows users to execute commands with high privileges by using a component called pkexec, followed by the command.
It was discovered in October, and disclosed last week – after most Linux distributions issued patches. Of course, there's lots of Linux out there that never gets patched, so expect this to be exploited in the wild for a long time.
Of course, this vulnerability doesn't give attackers access to the system. They have to get that some other way. But if they get access, this vulnerability gives them root privileges.
7.8 High
CVSS3
Attack Vector
LOCAL
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
7.2 High
CVSS2
Access Vector
LOCAL
Access Complexity
LOW
Authentication
NONE
Confidentiality Impact
COMPLETE
Integrity Impact
COMPLETE
Availability Impact
COMPLETE
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C