CrowdSecLive Exploit Tracker
Limited ExploitationCVE-2021-4034Public Exploit

polkit - Privilege Escalation (CVE-2021-4034)

PublishedJan 28, 2022
First SeenSep 21, 2026
Last Seen
Reported
CVSS7.8

Description

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.

psychologyCrowdSec Analysis

CVE-2021-4034 is a Privilege Escalation vulnerability affecting polkit's pkexec utility. An attacker can exploit this vulnerability to gain administrative rights on the target machine.

CrowdSec has been tracking this vulnerability and its exploits since 27th of January 2022.

CrowdSec has not observed any significant exploitation activity targeting CVE-2021-4034 across its network. As a result, no community-driven trend analysis is available for this vulnerability at this time.

Exploitation targets the pkexec utility, which is a setuid tool designed to allow unprivileged users to run commands as privileged users according to predefined policies.

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EventDate
Rule Released2022-01-27
CVE Published2022-01-28
CISA KEV2022-06-27
CISA Remediation Deadline2022-07-18
CrowdSec First Seen2026-09-21

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