CVE-2018-19788

Exp

A flaw was found in PolicyKit (aka polkit) 0.115 that allows a user with a uid greater than INT_MAX to successfully execute any systemctl command.

Published: 2018-12-03 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2018-19788 is rated High Exploit Risk (79.6/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 59.64%, 98th percentile). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2018-19788

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2018-19788

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2025-11-21 66.10% 59.64% -6.46%
2 2025-11-18 59.64% 66.10% +6.46%
3 2025-11-10 — 59.64% —

Full EPSS history (24 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-19788

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.8 3.0 HIGH
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 2.8 5.9 [email protected]
9.0 2.0 HIGH
AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:S)
A single authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:C)
Complete confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:C)
Complete integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
 8.0 10.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-19788

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-19788

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2018-19788 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (policykit-1), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-19788
gentoo normal CVE-2018-19788: 1 GLSA(s) (201908-14), 1 atom(s) (sys-auth/polkit); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2018-19788
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-19788
suse medium CVE-2018-19788 severity moderate: SUSE including 305 source package names (PolicyKit, PolicyKit-32bit, …), 442 product×package rows across 78 product lines (Image SLES12-SP5-Azure-BYOS, Image SLES12-SP5-Azure-Basic-On-Demand, … (78 product lines)): Known Affected 231, Fixed 198, Known Not Affected 13. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-19788/
ubuntu medium CVE-2018-19788 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (policykit-1), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bionic, cosmic, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 4, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-19788

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-19788

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
polkit_project polkit 0.115 cpe:2.3:a:polkit_project:polkit:0.115:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 12.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:12.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 14.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 16.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 18.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 18.10 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-19788

cvelogic Threat Intelligence