Amazon Linux 2023 : polkit, polkit-devel, polkit-libs (ALAS2023-2023-026)

high Nessus Plugin ID 173080

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Synopsis

The remote Amazon Linux 2023 host is missing a security update.

Description

It is, therefore, affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the ALAS2023-2023-026 advisory.

- 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-2021-4034)

- There is a flaw in polkit which can allow an unprivileged user to cause polkit to crash, due to process file descriptor exhaustion. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to availability. NOTE: Polkit process outage duration is tied to the failing process being reaped and a new one being spawned (CVE-2021-4115)

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Run 'dnf update polkit --releasever=2023.0.20230222 ' to update your system.

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 173080

File Name: al2023_ALAS2023-2023-026.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Amazon Linux Local Security Checks

Published: 3/21/2023

Updated: 3/22/2023

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Continuous Assessment, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Critical

Score: 9.8

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.2

Temporal Score: 6.3

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2021-4034

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.8

Temporal Score: 7.5

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:H/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:polkit, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:polkit-debugsource, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:polkit-docs, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:polkit-libs, cpe:/o:amazon:linux:2023, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:polkit-libs-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:polkit-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:polkit-devel

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/AmazonLinux/release, Host/AmazonLinux/rpm-list

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 2/17/2023

Vulnerability Publication Date: 1/25/2022

CISA Known Exploited Vulnerability Due Dates: 7/18/2022

Exploitable With

CANVAS (CANVAS)

Core Impact

Metasploit (Local Privilege Escalation in polkits pkexec)

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2021-4034, CVE-2021-4115

IAVA: 2022-A-0055

Detections

Analytics