high Known exploitedREV. 01

CVE-2021-3560polkit — the credential check talked past

polkit can be tricked past the credential check on a request, which raises the caller to root. An unprivileged local user has used it to create a new local administrator, and exploit code is public.

YOUR NEXT MOVE

Update polkit to your distribution's fixed package. The exploit is public and needs nothing more than an ordinary local account to run.

Read the risk

THE VITAL STATS
CVSS score
7.8/ 10
CVSS v3.1
EPSS probability
24%
Likelihood of exploitation
Attack complexity
Low
Conditions needed to exploit
Known exploited
Yes — CISA KEV
CVE published
2022-02-16
Added to KEV
2023-05-12
Exploit published
Yes
Confidence
medium
Kill chain
privilege escalation
MITRE ATT&CK
T1068
Severity
high

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attacker needsAn unprivileged local account on the system.

Behind the card

5 REFERENCES
Field-level provenanceTRACE THE SOURCES +

Which source supports each field, when it was retrieved, and who extracted it.

FieldsSourceRetrievedExtractorConfidence
cvss, exploitation.attack_complexity, exploitation.exploit_available, references, published_atnvd.nist.gov2026-09-24scrty-crds-pipeline/0.1high
exploitation.known_exploited, exploitation.kev_addedcisa.gov2026-09-24scrty-crds-pipeline/0.1high
epssapi.first.org2026-09-24scrty-crds-pipeline/0.1high
title, summary, severity, remediation, mitre_attack, kill_chain, recommended_action, confidence, tags, exploitation.prerequisitesnvd.nist.gov2026-09-24claude-codehigh

Printing history

THE RECORD
  1. r1Initial base card

First printing. This card has not been reprinted since publication.

crds:cve-2021-3560 · CRDS 0.1 · Issued 2026-09-24