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CVE-2016-2568

25
FAUCET Score

CVE-2016-2568 describes a local privilege escalation vulnerability in pkexec, specifically when used with the "--user nonpriv" option, affecting freedesktop and Red Hat Enterprise Linux distributions. An attacker can exploit this flaw by crafting a TIOCSTI ioctl call to inject characters into the terminal's input buffer, effectively escaping to the parent session. With a CVSS score of 7.8 (High), this vulnerability has a high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, though it requires local access and high attack complexity. There is no evidence of active exploitation, public exploit code (Metasploit, Nuclei, ExploitDB), or significant community discussion or media coverage surrounding this CVE.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
All Versions ImpactedCPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:freedesktop:polkit:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
6.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
7.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.1

7.8HIGH

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

Attack Vector
LOCAL
Attack Complexity
HIGH
Privileges Required
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
CHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
HIGH
Exploitability Score
1.1
Impact Score
6.0
CvssVersion
3.1

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
0.35%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
27.7%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-27
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0035 is in the 65th percentile among its peer group of 1,523 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.1 Reddit, 0.1 Bluesky, 0.1 Mastodon, and 0.2 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

No media coverage found for this CVE.

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.4 InfoSec Media, 0.1 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Patch Available

Vendor Patches (10)

microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: 16867-17084Fixed in: 123-1
microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: 16867-16817Fixed in: 123-1
microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: 16865-16820Fixed in: 0.116-7
microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: 16866-16823Fixed in: 0.119-3
microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: cm1 polkit 0.116-7 on CBL Mariner 1.0Fixed in: 0.116-7
microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: cbl2 polkit 0.119-3 on CBL Mariner 2.0Fixed in: 0.119-3
microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: azl3 polkit 123-1 on Azure Linux 3.0Fixed in: 123-1
redhatno patchvia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9Fixed in: polkit
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6Fixed in: polkit
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7Fixed in: polkit

Vendor Advisories (2)

microsoft2017-Feb/CVE-2016-2568Moderate

pkexec, when used with --user nonpriv, allows local users to escape to the parent session

Feb 21, 2017
redhatCVE-2016-2568Moderate

polkit: Program run via pkexec as unprivileged user can escape to parent session via TIOCSTI ioctl

Jan 19, 2016

References

access.redhat.com / security/cve/cve-2016-2568
Third Party Advisory
bugs.debian.org / cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi
Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
bugzilla.redhat.com / show_bug.cgi
Issue TrackingThird Party Advisory
ubuntu.com / security/CVE-2016-2568
Third Party Advisory
openwall.com / lists/oss-security/2016/02/26/3
Mailing ListThird Party Advisory