Exploite the CVE 2021 4034 vulnerability
Note: This video is made for education, please don't try to hack anyone without permission.
About Polkit pkexec for Linux
Polkit (formerly PolicyKit) is a component for controlling system-wide privileges in Unix-like operating systems. It provides an organized way for non-privileged processes to communicate with privileged processes. It is also possible to use polkit to execute commands with elevated privileges using the command pkexec followed by the command intended to be executed (with root permission).
Potential Impact of PwnKit Vulnerability
Successful exploitation of this vulnerability allows any unprivileged user to gain root privileges on the vulnerable host. Qualys security researchers have been able to independently verify the vulnerability, develop an exploit, and obtain full root privileges on default installations of Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, and CentOS. Other Linux distributions are likely vulnerable and probably exploitable. This vulnerability has been hiding in plain sight for 12+ years and affects all versions of pkexec since its first version in May 2009 (commit c8c3d83, “Add a pkexec(1) command”).
As soon as our Research Team confirmed the vulnerability, Qualys engaged in responsible vulnerability disclosure and has coordinated with both vendor and open-source distributions to announce the vulnerability.
Vulnerability Disclosure Timeline
2021-11-18: Advisory sent to secalert@redhat.
2022-01-11: Advisory and patch sent to distros@openwall.
2022-01-25: Coordinated Release Date (5:00 PM UTC).