==========================================================================
Ubuntu Security Notice USN-1117-1
April 19, 2011

policykit-1 vulnerability

A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:

• Ubuntu 10.10
• Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
• Ubuntu 9.10

Summary:

Local users could gain root access by using the pkexec tool in PolicyKit.

Software Description:

• policykit-1: framework for managing administrative policies and privileges

Details:

Neel Mehta discovered that PolicyKit did not correctly verify the user
making authorization requests. A local attacker could exploit this to
trick pkexec into running applications with root privileges.

Update instructions:

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following
package versions:

Ubuntu 10.10:
libpolkit-backend-1-0 0.96-2ubuntu1.1

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS:
libpolkit-backend-1-0 0.96-2ubuntu0.1

Ubuntu 9.10:
libpolkit-backend-1-0 0.94-1ubuntu1.1

After a standard system update you need to reboot your computer to make
all the necessary changes.

References:
CVE-2011-1485

Package Information:
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/policykit-1/0.96-2ubuntu1.1
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/policykit-1/0.96-2ubuntu0.1
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/policykit-1/0.94-1ubuntu1.1