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A local privilege escalation vulnerability was found on polkit's pkexec utility
CVE-2021-40344 of 4 sources documented this
rank 77 = 40 + 20 + 1 + 10 + 6
rank@v1 · act now
Someone is already using it
CISA KEV catalog · public proof-of-concept · FIRST EPSS
EPSS 0.94921 · CISA KEV listed · without this subject the record ranks 37
What it costs you if it fires
NVD CVSS base score, then the CNA's own
CVSS 7.8, from NVD · without this subject the record ranks 57
It is getting worse, not staying still
FIRST EPSS series, rescorings and bad loads removed
rose on 2025-11-18 · without this subject the record ranks 76
How much of the world it touches
NVD CPE configurations
20 products in the CPE ranges · without this subject the record ranks 67
Someone else already set the date
CISA KEV remediation due date
CISA remediation date held · without this subject the record ranks 71
Unaudited dollar value2 of 3 inputs carry a receipt
Exposure$4.74Mover the next 30 days, if this record is yours
Movement-$399,000on 2025-11-21, the last material move, 9 months before this reading
Basisassumeda published average, not your estate
$4.74M = $4.99M incident cost x 1 exposure x 0.94921 likelihood
udv@v1 · unaudited · wrong for you until you say what you run
$4.99M is the cost of a breach that happened, from IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2026, global average. It is not the value of any asset of yours. That average already covers breaches of every severity, so scaling it by exposure understates a partial-impact record. That is an assumption, not a measurement. Your own asset value goes in the decision record.
PLATEAUMinimal movement since 2025-12-13, 265 days at 0.95, as of 2026-09-04. arc-rules@v1
Foresight · where to check next
This record is one instance of CWE-787, out-of-bounds write. The index holds 14892 prior instances of this class, 163 KEV-listed. The nearest of its KEV-listed records are drawn beside this. taxonomy@v1
Prior records in this weakness class. Each is its own record, dated and receipted.
Color is a claim, not decoration:the hostile worldthe defenseno signalspoke length is how much of the record matches, not how bad it is
Running polkit? Check your version
A deterministic range check against the ranges this record publishes. It tells you where a version sits in the record, not whether your deployment is exploitable. No account needed.
Watch this record
Matches your own product list against every record this index holds, and tells you when one of them moves.
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Harm, if it fires from the vector and the weakness
Written for the ticket you're about to file.
Reachneeds local access · low privileges required · no user interaction · low attack complexityreceipt
ImpactComplete confidentiality, integrity and availability lossreceipt
CISA KEV & Federal Remediation Deadline from the record and CISA
The fix, and how long it's been waiting.
First unaffected version, by branchproject polkit 121receipt
Patch available sinceNo dated patch-availability record in held sources. The index holds reference URLs without dates and only the current revision of the CVE record, so the day a fix first existed cannot be derived. Only the versions it landed in.
CISA remediation statusoverdue since 2022-07-18receipt
CISA required actionApply updates per vendor instructions.receipt
Published to CISA KEV150 daysderived
Exploit Status & Known PoCs a ladder, not a score
Current rung: Ransomware campaign use known, 2022-06-27.
RUNG 1Nothing observed in held sources
RUNG 2Proof-of-concept published · 68 public repositories2022-01-25receipt
RUNG 3Exploited in the wild · CISA KEV listed2022-06-27receipt
RUNG 4Ransomware campaign use known2022-06-27receipt
Published rangespolkit project polkit < 121; redhat enterprise linux server update services for sap solutions 7.6; redhat enterprise linux server update services for sap solutions 7.7; redhat enterprise linux 8.0receipt
Show all 20 published ranges
polkit project polkit < 121
redhat enterprise linux server update services for sap solutions 7.6
redhat enterprise linux server update services for sap solutions 7.7
redhat enterprise linux 8.0
redhat enterprise linux desktop 7.0
redhat enterprise linux eus 8.2
redhat enterprise linux for ibm z systems 7.0
redhat enterprise linux for ibm z systems 8.0
redhat enterprise linux for ibm z systems eus 8.2
redhat enterprise linux for ibm z systems eus 8.4
redhat enterprise linux for power big endian 7.0
redhat enterprise linux for power little endian 7.0
redhat enterprise linux for power little endian 8.0
redhat enterprise linux for power little endian eus 8.1
redhat enterprise linux for power little endian eus 8.2
redhat enterprise linux for power little endian eus 8.4
redhat enterprise linux for scientific computing 7.0
redhat enterprise linux server 6.0
redhat enterprise linux server 7.0
redhat enterprise linux server aus 7.3
A rung lights from a row in the index, never from an assessment. "Held sources" is the true scope of the claim: this index reads the CVE record, NVD, CISA KEV, FIRST's EPSS and public proof-of-concept repositories, and it does not observe attacks.
What it is stated by the CNA
PwnKit is the common name for 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. cve-aliases@2026-08-27
NVD's analysis a second authority
severity
7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
weakness
CWE-787; CWE-125
affected versions
polkit project polkit < 121; redhat enterprise linux server update services for sap solutions 7.6; redhat enterprise linux server update services for sap solutions 7.7; and 17 more, listed in full below
17 Mar 20250.87759 · crossed 0.10 and 0.50 · scoring model v2025.03.14
18 Nov 20250.9297 · crossed 0.90
21 Nov 20250.84966 · crossed 0.90
15 Jun 20260.94921 · crossed 0.90 · scoring model v2026.06.15
Show all 135 observations
29 Jan 20220.04225
4 Feb 20220.03644
4 Mar 20220.08954
15 Jul 20220.13064
6 Oct 20220.09677
15 Nov 20220.04106
3 Feb 20230.02365
14 Feb 20230.04106
7 Mar 20234.6e-4
8 Mar 20230.00046
29 Jun 20240.00122
8 Nov 20240.00134
23 Nov 20240.00145
17 Dec 20240.00135
17 Mar 20250.87759
19 Mar 20250.8743
24 Mar 20250.87292
6 Apr 20250.86769
7 Apr 20250.87292
9 Apr 20250.86769
10 Apr 20250.87292
15 Apr 20250.87759
16 Apr 20250.87742
19 Apr 20250.87759
20 Apr 20250.8743
25 Apr 20250.88729
1 May 20250.88309
4 May 20250.88616
7 May 20250.88729
15 May 20250.88579
17 May 20250.88715
22 May 20250.88729
24 May 20250.89763
1 Jun 20250.89419
4 Jun 20250.88616
5 Jun 20250.89671
15 Jun 20250.88286
16 Jun 20250.88579
17 Jun 20250.88715
18 Jun 20250.88414
22 Jun 20250.88429
23 Jun 20250.88711
28 Jun 20250.88429
1 Jul 20250.87987
4 Jul 20250.88429
6 Jul 20250.8831
16 Jul 20250.88697
19 Jul 20250.88711
24 Jul 20250.87691
25 Jul 20250.87359
1 Aug 20250.8684
3 Aug 20250.86691
4 Aug 20250.8722
6 Aug 20250.87072
7 Aug 20250.87156
8 Aug 20250.87674
12 Aug 20250.87087
13 Aug 20250.87691
14 Aug 20250.87019
18 Aug 20250.87001
19 Aug 20250.87019
23 Aug 20250.86504
27 Aug 20250.85737
1 Sep 20250.86302
5 Sep 20250.86708
10 Sep 20250.86964
16 Sep 20250.8854
17 Sep 20250.87967
18 Sep 20250.8854
19 Sep 20250.87756
20 Sep 20250.87257
28 Sep 20250.87723
1 Oct 20250.87283
2 Oct 20250.86106
3 Oct 20250.85942
4 Oct 20250.86521
9 Oct 20250.87035
17 Oct 20250.87772
22 Oct 20250.87178
24 Oct 20250.87035
27 Oct 20250.86981
28 Oct 20250.87035
29 Oct 20250.83929
30 Oct 20250.87035
31 Oct 20250.83929
1 Nov 20250.83169
4 Nov 20250.83929
18 Nov 20250.9297
21 Nov 20250.84966
1 Dec 20250.83383
2 Dec 20250.83169
4 Dec 20250.83929
9 Dec 20250.84048
13 Dec 20250.87119
18 Dec 20250.87261
27 Dec 20250.87208
28 Dec 20250.87261
1 Jan 20260.86734
4 Jan 20260.87261
5 Jan 20260.88558
8 Jan 20260.87119
15 Jan 20260.88442
18 Jan 20260.87073
22 Jan 20260.87676
23 Jan 20260.89041
27 Jan 20260.87848
1 Feb 20260.86734
4 Feb 20260.87261
5 Feb 20260.87119
18 Feb 20260.87848
19 Feb 20260.87261
1 Mar 20260.86734
4 Mar 20260.87261
9 Mar 20260.87119
16 Mar 20260.87811
21 Mar 20260.88316
26 Mar 20260.88472
2 Apr 20260.8794
10 Apr 20260.87811
21 Apr 20260.88083
22 Apr 20260.88658
23 Apr 20260.88806
27 Apr 20260.88316
28 Apr 20260.88057
2 May 20260.88472
6 May 20260.88057
10 May 20260.87488
11 May 20260.87351
22 May 20260.88658
23 May 20260.88806
27 May 20260.88316
28 May 20260.88057
9 Jun 20260.87488
10 Jun 20260.87351
15 Jun 20260.94921
135 observations held. A highlighted step crossed a promotion threshold. A step marked with a scoring model moved because the instrument was replaced, not because the vulnerability changed. receipt
The full biography
Listed by CISA 150 days after it published and the record had been public for 4 years, 7 months when this index was last written.
No material movement in 81 days as of the last ingest this index recorded.
Public PoC 2022-01-25 receipt · Published 2022-01-28 receipt · CISA KEV 2022-06-27 receipt · Index as of 2026-09-04 derived
The pattern, elsewhere
This record is one instance of CWE-787, out-of-bounds write. The index holds 14892 prior instances of this class, 163 KEV-listed. The nearest of its KEV-listed records are drawn beside this. [email protected]
CVE-2024-30051 · Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1809matches 8 of 10KEV listed · 2024receipt
CVE-2023-23376 · Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1507matches 8 of 10KEV listed · 2023receipt
CVE-2023-28252 · Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1809matches 8 of 10KEV listed · 2023receipt
CVE-2022-24521 · Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1809matches 8 of 10KEV listed · 2022receipt
CVE-2022-37969 · Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1809matches 8 of 10KEV listed · 2022receipt
CVE-2022-41073 · Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1507matches 8 of 10KEV listed · 2022receipt
"Matches n of m" counts the attributes the two records can both be compared on: the CVSS metrics they share a version of, any weakness class beyond this one, and the vendor. fit-rules@v1
14892 records in this class held. The six above are drawn from the ones CISA has listed as exploited, ranked by how much of the record matches this one. That is why every one of them is KEV-listed: the pool is, so the colour on those spokes says nothing the pool has not already said.
No curated product neighbourhood is held for this product, so the records above are the nearest this index can name. The neighbourhood table covers a small set of products and is extended by hand.