FKIE_CVE-2026-41651
Vulnerability from fkie_nvd - Published: 2026-04-22 14:17 - Updated: 2026-07-15 02:21
Severity
8.8 (High) - CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
8.8 (High) - CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
8.8 (High) - CVSS:3.1/
Summary
PackageKit is a a D-Bus abstraction layer that allows the user to manage packages in a secure way using a cross-distro, cross-architecture API. PackageKit between and including versions 1.0.2 and 1.3.4 is vulnerable to a time-of-check time-of-use (TOCTOU) race condition on transaction flags that allows unprivileged users to install packages as root and thus leads to a local privilege escalation. This is patched in version 1.3.5.
A local unprivileged user can install arbitrary RPM packages as root, including executing RPM scriptlets, without authentication. The vulnerability is a TOCTOU race condition on `transaction->cached_transaction_flags` combined with a silent state-machine guard that discards illegal backward transitions while leaving corrupted flags in place. Three bugs exist in `src/pk-transaction.c`:
1. Unconditional flag overwrite (line 4036): `InstallFiles()` writes caller-supplied flags to `transaction->cached_transaction_flags` without checking whether the transaction has already been authorized/started. A second call blindly overwrites the flags even while the transaction is RUNNING.
2. Silent state-transition rejection (lines 873–882): `pk_transaction_set_state()` silently discards backward state transitions (e.g. `RUNNING` → `WAITING_FOR_AUTH`) but the flag overwrite at step 1 already happened. The transaction continues running with corrupted flags.
3. Late flag read at execution time (lines 2273–2277): The scheduler's idle callback reads cached_transaction_flags at dispatch time, not at authorization time. If flags were overwritten between authorization and execution, the backend sees the attacker's flags.
References
Impacted products
| Vendor | Product | Version | |
|---|---|---|---|
| packagekit_project | packagekit | * |
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}
]
}
],
"source": "security-advisories@github.com"
},
{
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"product": "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Extended Update Support Long-Life Add-On",
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"cpes": [
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"packageName": "PackageKit",
"product": "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Advanced Mission Critical Update Support",
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"packageName": "PackageKit",
"product": "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Telecommunications Update Service",
"vendor": "Red Hat",
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"version": "0:1.1.12-6.el8_6.1",
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"cpes": [
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"packageName": "PackageKit",
"product": "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Update Services for SAP Solutions",
"vendor": "Red Hat",
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"cpes": [
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{
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"cpes": [
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"packageName": "PackageKit",
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"vendor": "Red Hat",
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"packageName": "PackageKit",
"product": "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6",
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},
{
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"cpes": [
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],
"defaultStatus": "unaffected",
"packageName": "compat-PackageKit08",
"product": "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7",
"vendor": "Red Hat"
}
],
"source": "0b0ca135-0b70-47e7-9f44-1890c2a1c46c"
}
],
"configurations": [
{
"nodes": [
{
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{
"criteria": "cpe:2.3:a:packagekit_project:packagekit:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"matchCriteriaId": "533CCCB1-C825-4DE0-8A4C-1947F07D8E62",
"versionEndExcluding": "1.3.5",
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"cveTags": [],
"descriptions": [
{
"lang": "en",
"value": "PackageKit is a a D-Bus abstraction layer that allows the user to manage packages in a secure way using a cross-distro, cross-architecture API. PackageKit between and including versions 1.0.2 and 1.3.4 is vulnerable to a time-of-check time-of-use (TOCTOU) race condition on transaction flags that allows unprivileged users to install packages as root and thus leads to a local privilege escalation. This is patched in version 1.3.5.\n\nA local unprivileged user can install arbitrary RPM packages as root, including executing RPM scriptlets, without authentication. The vulnerability is a TOCTOU race condition on `transaction-\u003ecached_transaction_flags` combined with a silent state-machine guard that discards illegal backward transitions while leaving corrupted flags in place. Three bugs exist in `src/pk-transaction.c`:\n1. Unconditional flag overwrite (line 4036): `InstallFiles()` writes caller-supplied flags to `transaction-\u003ecached_transaction_flags` without checking whether the transaction has already been authorized/started. A second call blindly overwrites the flags even while the transaction is RUNNING.\n2. Silent state-transition rejection (lines 873\u2013882): `pk_transaction_set_state()` silently discards backward state transitions (e.g. `RUNNING` \u2192 `WAITING_FOR_AUTH`) but the flag overwrite at step 1 already happened. The transaction continues running with corrupted flags.\n3. Late flag read at execution time (lines 2273\u20132277): The scheduler\u0027s idle callback reads cached_transaction_flags at dispatch time, not at authorization time. If flags were overwritten between authorization and execution, the backend sees the attacker\u0027s flags."
}
],
"id": "CVE-2026-41651",
"lastModified": "2026-07-15T02:21:18.760",
"metrics": {
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"baseScore": 8.8,
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"scope": "CHANGED",
"userInteraction": "NONE",
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"published": "2026-04-22T14:17:04.617",
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}
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Experimental. This forecast is provided for visualization only and may change without notice. Do not use it for operational decisions.
Forecast uses a logistic model when the trend is rising, or an exponential decay model when the trend is falling. Fitted via linearized least squares.
Sightings
| Author | Source | Type | Date | Other |
|---|
Nomenclature
- Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
- Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
- Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
- Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
- Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
- Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
- Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
- Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
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The MITRE ATT&CK techniques below are AI-generated suggestions, inferred from the description of the
vulnerability by the CIRCL/vulnerability-attack-technique-classification-roberta-base
model, served locally by ML-Gateway.
They have not been verified by an analyst and are provided for guidance only.
The approach is described in our paper Mapping CVEs to MITRE ATT&CK Techniques: A Curated Gold-Set Classifier and the Limits of LLM-Assisted Label Expansion.
Browse all ATT&CK techniques and the vulnerabilities related to each.
The approach is described in our paper Mapping CVEs to MITRE ATT&CK Techniques: A Curated Gold-Set Classifier and the Limits of LLM-Assisted Label Expansion.
Browse all ATT&CK techniques and the vulnerabilities related to each.
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