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Vulnerabilities/CVE-2021-3560
Vulnerability dossier

CVE-2021-3560

Polkit Privilege Escalation via D-Bus Credential Bypass

VendorredhatPublishedFeb 16, 2022SourceNVDWeaknessCWE-863
Act now

Actively exploited in the wild. Patch or mitigate immediately — don't wait for a maintenance window.

⚙ WeaponizedMetasploit module availableopen ↗PoCPublic exploit on Exploit-DB#50011 ↗
Severity
High · 7.8
CVSS base score
Exploitation
In the wild
CISA KEV · Metasploit · Exploit-DB
Predicted risk
24% model
EPSS forecast — overtaken by confirmed exploitation
Exposure
Local only
Requires local access to the host
01

What's the risk?

An attacker with a basic user account, with local access to the host, with no user interaction, can fully compromise the system — steal data, tamper with it and take it offline.

It was found that polkit could be tricked into bypassing the credential checks for D-Bus requests, elevating the privileges of the requestor to the root user. This flaw could be used by an unprivileged local attacker to, for example, create a new local administrator. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to data confidentiality and integrity as well as system availability.

How it's exploitedMITRE ATT&CK · inferred from weakness & vector
Initial Access
T1190Exploit Public-Facing Application
Privilege Escalation
T1068Exploitation for Privilege Escalation

Inferred from the weakness type (CWE) and how the flaw is reached — the techniques an attacker would chain to exploit this. Real-world corroboration appears here as threat intel is folded in.

02

Who's exploiting it?

Corroborated threat activity referencing this CVE — with source and confidence, not inference.

Confirmed exploited in the wild. CISA KEV · catalogued May 12, 2023

Named threat actors and observed ATT&CK techniques appear here as intel feeds are folded in — the ATT&CK chain above stays inferred until then.

03

Are we affected?

6
  • Affectedcanonical · ubuntu_linux20.04
  • Affecteddebian · debian_linux11.0
  • Affectedpolkit_project · polkitall versions
  • Affectedredhat · openshift_container_platform4.7
  • Affectedredhat · virtualization4.0
  • Affectedredhat · virtualization_host4.0
04

What to do

Generated by Wavense from the CVE record — an immediate mitigation and the permanent fix.

  1. !

    Mitigate now

    Limit unprivileged local user access to sensitive systems where possible, or segregate such systems. Implement robust monitoring for unusual or unauthorized D-Bus requests, particularly those involving polkit, from non-root users. Enforce the principle of least privilege rigorously across all user accounts to minimize the potential attack surface and damage if an escalation occurs.

  2. ✓

    Permanent fix

    Apply the official security patches released by the vendor for polkit to address the D-Bus credential bypass vulnerability. Ensure all affected systems running polkit are updated to a patched version to permanently eliminate the privilege escalation risk. Refer to the vendor's security advisories for specific update instructions and supported versions to ensure comprehensive remediation.

Technical details— weakness, CVSS vector & calculator, related CVEs

Business impact

An unprivileged local attacker can exploit this flaw to bypass polkit's credential checks for D-Bus requests, effectively escalating their privileges to root. This allows the attacker to gain full control over the system, potentially creating new administrator accounts, accessing sensitive data, altering system configurations, or disrupting services. The highest threat is to data confidentiality and integrity as well as system availability.

Weakness

2
CWE-863Common Weakness Enumeration · MITRE definitionCWE-754Common Weakness Enumeration · MITRE definition

CVSS 3.1 details

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
0.0
/ 10.0 base
High severity
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Exploitability metrics
Attack VectorAV
Requires local access to the target
Attack ComplexityAC
No special conditions required
Privileges RequiredPR
Basic user privileges
User InteractionUI
No user participation needed
Impact metrics
ScopeS
Impact confined to the vulnerable component
ConfidentialityC
Total loss of confidentiality
IntegrityI
Total loss of integrity
AvailabilityA
Total loss of availability

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High severity
Key facts
CVE ID
CVE-2021-3560
Published
Feb 16, 2022
Last modified
Nov 6, 2025
CVSS
7.8 (v3.1)
EPSS
23.71%
In CISA KEV
Yes
Confidence
100/100
Weakness
CWE-863
Timeline
  1. Feb 16, 2022Published to NVDNVD
  2. Nov 6, 2025Record last modifiedNVD
  3. Aug 22, 2026AI analysis generatedWavense
View on NVD