- Issued:
- 2011-04-19
- Updated:
- 2011-04-19
RHSA-2011:0455 - Important: polkit security update
Synopsis
Important: polkit security update
Type/Severity
Security Advisory Important
Topic
Updated polkit packages that fix one security issue are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.
The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having important security impact. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available from the CVE link in the References section.
Description
PolicyKit is a toolkit for defining and handling authorizations.
A race condition flaw was found in the PolicyKit pkexec utility and polkitd daemon. A local user could use this flaw to appear as a privileged user to pkexec, allowing them to execute arbitrary commands as root by running those commands with pkexec. (CVE-2011-1485)
Red Hat would like to thank Neel Mehta of Google for reporting this issue.
All polkit users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct this issue. The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.
Solution
Before applying this update, make sure all previously-released errata relevant to your system have been applied.
This update is available via the Red Hat Network. Details on how to use the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at This content is not included.https://access.redhat.com/kb/docs/DOC-11259
Affected Products
| Product | Version | Arch |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Scientific Computing | 6 | x86_64 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian | 6 | ppc64 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems | 6 | s390x |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation | 6 | x86_64 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation | 6 | i386 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server | 6 | x86_64 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server | 6 | i386 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI | 6 | x86_64 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI | 6 | i386 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support | 6 | x86_64 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support | 6 | i386 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension | 6 | x86_64 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension | 6 | i386 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension (for IBM z Systems) | 6 | s390x |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support (for IBM z Systems) | 6 | s390x |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop | 6 | x86_64 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop | 6 | i386 |
Updated Packages
- polkit-0.96-2.el6_0.1.src.rpm
- polkit-devel-0.96-2.el6_0.1.ppc64.rpm
- polkit-docs-0.96-2.el6_0.1.x86_64.rpm
- polkit-debuginfo-0.96-2.el6_0.1.s390x.rpm
- polkit-devel-0.96-2.el6_0.1.s390.rpm
- polkit-devel-0.96-2.el6_0.1.x86_64.rpm
- polkit-debuginfo-0.96-2.el6_0.1.x86_64.rpm
- polkit-0.96-2.el6_0.1.x86_64.rpm
- polkit-0.96-2.el6_0.1.ppc.rpm
- polkit-0.96-2.el6_0.1.s390.rpm
- polkit-docs-0.96-2.el6_0.1.s390x.rpm
- polkit-desktop-policy-0.96-2.el6_0.1.noarch.rpm
- polkit-debuginfo-0.96-2.el6_0.1.i686.rpm
- polkit-debuginfo-0.96-2.el6_0.1.ppc64.rpm
- polkit-docs-0.96-2.el6_0.1.ppc64.rpm
- polkit-debuginfo-0.96-2.el6_0.1.s390.rpm
- polkit-devel-0.96-2.el6_0.1.s390x.rpm
- polkit-0.96-2.el6_0.1.s390x.rpm
- polkit-devel-0.96-2.el6_0.1.i686.rpm
- polkit-0.96-2.el6_0.1.i686.rpm
- polkit-debuginfo-0.96-2.el6_0.1.ppc.rpm
- polkit-devel-0.96-2.el6_0.1.ppc.rpm
- polkit-docs-0.96-2.el6_0.1.i686.rpm
- polkit-0.96-2.el6_0.1.ppc64.rpm
Fixes
CVEs
References
Additional information
- The Red Hat security contact is This content is not included.secalert@redhat.com. More contact details at https://access.redhat.com/security/team/contact/.
- Offline Security Data data is available for integration with other systems. See Offline Security Data API to get started.