ubuntu-cve-2026-41651
Vulnerability from osv_ubuntu
Published
2026-04-23 00:00
Modified
2026-06-30 16:20
Summary
Details

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.

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
N/A (UNKNOWN)
high
References
To clipboard 

{
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        "binaries": [
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        "priority_reason": "Local privilege escalation to the root user."
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      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "Ubuntu:26.04:LTS",
        "name": "packagekit",
        "purl": "pkg:deb/ubuntu/packagekit@1.3.4-3ubuntu1?arch=source\u0026distro=resolute"
      },
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            }
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        }
      ],
      "versions": [
        "1.3.1-1",
        "1.3.2-1",
        "1.3.3-1",
        "1.3.4-1",
        "1.3.4-3"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "aliases": [],
  "details": "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-\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`: 1. 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. 2. 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. 3. 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": "UBUNTU-CVE-2026-41651",
  "modified": "2026-06-30T16:20:59Z",
  "published": "2026-04-23T00:00:00Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-41651"
    },
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-41651"
    },
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/packagekit/2026-April/026513.html"
    },
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://github.com/PackageKit/PackageKit/security/advisories/GHSA-f55j-vvr9-69xv"
    },
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://github.security.telekom.com/2026/04/pack2theroot-linux-local-privilege-escalation.html"
    },
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-8195-1"
    },
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-8195-2"
    },
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-8195-3"
    }
  ],
  "related": [
    "USN-8195-1",
    "USN-8195-2",
    "USN-8195-3"
  ],
  "schema_version": "1.7.0",
  "severity": [
    {
      "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H",
      "type": "CVSS_V3"
    },
    {
      "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H",
      "type": "CVSS_V3"
    },
    {
      "score": "high",
      "type": "Ubuntu"
    }
  ],
  "upstream": [
    "CVE-2026-41651"
  ]
}



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Detection rules are retrieved from Rulezet.