Linux is widely known as a highly secure operating system.

It is so devastating that a criticality rating of 8 was issued to the vulnerability.

So, what exactly is Polkit CVE-2021-4034, and how can you fix it?

sudo command on terminal

What Is the CVE-2021-4034 Polkit Privilege Escalation Vulnerability?

Polkit privilege escalation vulnerability weaponizespkexec, an executable part of the PolicyKit component of Linux.

pkexec is an executable that allows a user to execute commands as another user.

vulnerable pkexec source code

This bug has been termed “Pwnkit” and is being tracked as CVE-2021-4034.

The Polkit vulnerability in Linux allows non-privileged users to execute malicious code as root.

How Is CVE-2021-4034 Polkit Privilege Escalation Vulnerability Exploited?

It defines and manages policies that allow unprivileged processes to communicate with privileged processes on a Linux system.

The root of the vulnerability lies in the source code of this executable.

Who Is Impacted by the CVE-2021-4034 Vulnerability?

So,check the build version of your distroand update it as soon as possible.

How to Fix the CVE-2021-4034 Polkit Privilege Escalation Vulnerability and Are You Safe?

To fix the CVE-2021-4034 Polkit privilege escalation vulnerability, upgrade your Linux distribution to the latest release.

This data should be sufficient to illustrate the scope of CVE-2021-4034 Polkit vulnerability and how devastating it could be.

It is advised to all individuals and server maintainers to update and upgrade their systems.