CVE-2021-4115
There is a flaw in polkit which can allow an unprivileged user to cause polkit to crash, due to process file descriptor exhaustion.
Does this matter?
Lower severity and a low EPSS score (0.53%). Track it; it rarely justifies an emergency change on its own.
Description
There is a flaw in polkit which can allow an unprivileged user to cause polkit to crash, due to process file descriptor exhaustion. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to availability. NOTE: Polkit process outage duration is tied to the failing process being reaped and a new one being spawned
- CVSS 3.1
- 5.5 MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- EPSS
- 0.53% probability · 44th percentile
- Public exploits
- None in Exploit-DB
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-400
- Affected
- polkit project/polkit · redhat/enterprise linux · fedoraproject/fedora · canonical/ubuntu linux · debian/debian linux · oracle/zfs storage appliance kit
- Source
- secalert@redhat.com
EPSS 0.5% since 26 October 2026; no change recorded yet. Points are recorded when the score first appears and whenever it moves by a percentage point or more.
References
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/172849/polkit-File-Descriptor-Exhaustion.html
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2021-4115Third Party Advisory
- https://gitlab.com/redhat/centos-stream/rpms/polkit/-/merge_requests/6/diffs?commit_id=bf900df04dc390d389e59aa10942b0f2b15c531ePatch, Third Party Advisory
- https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/polkit/polkit/-/issues/141Exploit, Issue Tracking, Patch, Third Party Advisory
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/VGKWCBS6IDZYYDYM2WIWJM5BL7QQTWPF/
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujul2022.htmlPatch, Third Party Advisory
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/172849/polkit-File-Descriptor-Exhaustion.html
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2021-4115Third Party Advisory
- https://gitlab.com/redhat/centos-stream/rpms/polkit/-/merge_requests/6/diffs?commit_id=bf900df04dc390d389e59aa10942b0f2b15c531ePatch, Third Party Advisory
- https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/polkit/polkit/-/issues/141Exploit, Issue Tracking, Patch, Third Party Advisory
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/VGKWCBS6IDZYYDYM2WIWJM5BL7QQTWPF/
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujul2022.htmlPatch, Third Party Advisory
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.