CVE-2018-19788

HIGHNVD 8.88.8—
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

Score 8.8 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: HIGH) published 2022-05-14. NVD baseline CVSS 8.8; sources differ by 0.0.

Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: epss, ghsa, nvd
Elevated
8.8EG
EchelonGraph verdictPlan a fixSerious severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet.
  • High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 11%CVSS: 8.8Exploit: Elevated riskExposed: 0

A fix is available — apply it.

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.

CVSS v3
8.8
EG Score
8.8(medium)
EG Risk
56(Track*)
EG Risk 56/100SSVC: Track*

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).

How it’s computed
Severity88% × 45%
Exploitation40% × 40%
Automatability0% × 15%
Action: Watch closely — could escalate to Attend.
EPSS PROB
11%
EPSS %ILE
96%
KEV
Not listed

Published

December 3, 2018

Last Modified

November 21, 2024

Advisory Details (7)

Auto-updated Aug 17, 2026
Patch available. Sources: redhat.
redhat Patch Available

Affected: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.

https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:2046
generic

[SECURITY] [DSA 4350-1] policykit-1 security update

https://www.debian.org/security/2018/dsa-4350
generic

polkit: Multiple vulnerabilities (GLSA 201908-14) — Gentoo security

https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201908-14
generic Patch Available

[SECURITY] [DLA 1644-1] policykit-1 security update

https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2019/01/msg00021.html
generic

unprivileged users with UID > INT_MAX can successfully execute any systemctl command (#74) · Issues · polkit / polkit · GitLab

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/polkit/polkit/issues/74
generic Patch Available

#915332 - policykit-1: CVE-2018-19788: unprivileged users with UID can successfully execute any systemctl command - Debian Bug report logs

https://bugs.debian.org/915332
redhat Patch Available

Affected: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.6 Extended Update Support.

https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:3232

Patch Availability(4)

Vendor / EcosystemFixed in / PatchReleasedSource
ubuntulibpolkit-backend-1-0 (0.104-1ubuntu1.4) @ precise2026-05-28ubuntu
ubuntupolicykit-1-doc (0.105-14.1ubuntu0.4) @ xenial2026-05-28ubuntu
redhatpolkit-0:0.112-18.el7_6.22019-10-29redhat
redhatpolkit-0:0.112-22.el72019-08-06redhat

Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.

Affected Packages

(10 across 10 ecosystems)
Alpine:v3.6(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
polkit0.100-r0 ... 0.99-r0 (19 versions)0.105-r8—
Alpine:v3.7(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
polkit0.100-r0 ... 0.99-r0 (19 versions)0.105-r8—
Alpine:v3.8(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
polkit0.100-r0 ... 0.99-r0 (20 versions)0.105-r9—
Alpine:v3.9(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
polkit0.100-r0 ... 0.99-r0 (20 versions)0.105-r9—
Debian:11(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
policykit-1—0.105-23—
Debian:12(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
policykit-1—0.105-23—
Debian:13(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
policykit-1—0.105-23—
Debian:14(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
policykit-1—0.105-23—
Debian:8(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
policykit-10.105-10 ... 0.105-9 (11 versions)0.105-15~deb8u4—
Debian:9(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
policykit-10.105-180.105-18+deb9u1—

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

All Vendor Advisories

(4)

Every vendor that published an advisory referencing this CVE — pulled from our cve_vendor_advisories aggregation. Click any row for the vendor's original advisory page.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 6× in last 7d / 27× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

Showing the most recent 100 of 116 total refreshes for this CVE.

  1. 2026-08-20 22:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-08-19 17:00 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-08-18 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-08-16 14:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-08-16 02:10 UTCEPSS rescore
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  7. 2026-08-13 21:56 UTCEPSS rescore
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  9. 2026-08-08 16:32 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-08-07 16:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-08-06 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-08-06 09:10 UTCOSV refresh
  13. 2026-08-05 19:13 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-08-04 15:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-08-02 02:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-08-01 04:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-07-30 16:24 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-07-30 01:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-07-28 15:32 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-07-26 14:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-07-26 14:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-07-25 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-07-24 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-07-24 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-07-23 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
Show 75 more
  1. 2026-07-23 01:35 UTCEG score recompute
  2. 2026-07-22 22:15 UTCEG score recompute
  3. 2026-07-22 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-07-21 02:17 UTCOSV refresh
  6. 2026-07-20 17:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-07-20 17:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-07-19 14:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-07-19 02:26 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-07-19 02:26 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-07-16 16:59 UTCEPSS rescore
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  13. 2026-07-15 16:55 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-07-15 16:55 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-07-15 01:56 UTCEPSS rescore
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  17. 2026-07-13 22:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-07-13 22:26 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-07-13 06:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-07-12 05:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-07-11 08:24 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-07-09 19:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-07-08 15:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-07-07 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-07-07 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  26. 2026-07-06 16:24 UTCEPSS rescore
  27. 2026-07-06 16:24 UTCEPSS rescore
  28. 2026-07-05 02:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  29. 2026-07-04 06:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  30. 2026-07-04 06:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  31. 2026-07-03 21:26 UTCOSV refresh
  32. 2026-07-02 16:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  33. 2026-07-01 15:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  34. 2026-07-01 15:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  35. 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
  36. 2026-06-30 23:19 UTCEPSS rescore
  37. 2026-06-29 14:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  38. 2026-06-28 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  39. 2026-06-28 04:53 UTCEPSS rescore
  40. 2026-06-28 04:53 UTCEPSS rescore
  41. 2026-06-27 03:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  42. 2026-06-27 03:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  43. 2026-06-25 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
  44. 2026-06-25 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
  45. 2026-06-24 14:02 UTCEPSS rescore
  46. 2026-06-24 14:02 UTCEPSS rescore
  47. 2026-06-23 21:30 UTCEPSS rescore
  48. 2026-06-23 21:30 UTCEPSS rescore
  49. 2026-06-23 21:30 UTCEPSS rescore
  50. 2026-06-22 14:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  51. 2026-06-21 14:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  52. 2026-06-21 14:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  53. 2026-06-21 01:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  54. 2026-06-21 01:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  55. 2026-06-18 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  56. 2026-06-18 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  57. 2026-06-17 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  58. 2026-06-17 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  59. 2026-06-16 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  60. 2026-06-16 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  61. 2026-06-15 17:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  62. 2026-06-15 09:43 UTCOSV refresh
  63. 2026-06-13 22:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  64. 2026-06-12 23:09 UTCEPSS rescore
  65. 2026-06-12 23:09 UTCEPSS rescore
  66. 2026-06-11 13:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  67. 2026-06-10 22:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  68. 2026-06-10 13:19 UTCEPSS rescore
  69. 2026-06-08 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  70. 2026-06-08 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  71. 2026-06-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  72. 2026-06-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  73. 2026-06-05 22:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  74. 2026-06-05 22:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  75. 2026-06-05 06:08 UTCEPSS rescore

Publicly available exploits

(3 references)

Working exploit code is in the public domain (3 GitHub PoCs). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.

  • GitHub PoCEkultek/PoC
    First seen Dec 17, 2018

    Leveraging CVE-2018-19788 without root shells

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCAbsoZed/CVE-2018-19788
    First seen Dec 7, 2018

    Silly easy exploit for CVE-2018-19788

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCd4gh0s7/CVE-2018-19788
    First seen Dec 7, 2018

    Ansible role to check the vulnerability tracked as CVE-2018-19788, impacts PolicyKit version 0.115 which comes pre-installed on a wide range of Linux distributions

    Open source ↗

Related CVEs(same vendor + same CWE)

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2018-19788?
CVE-2018-19788 is a high vulnerability published on December 3, 2018. 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.
When was CVE-2018-19788 disclosed?
CVE-2018-19788 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on December 3, 2018, with the most recent update on November 21, 2024. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2018-19788 actively exploited?
CVE-2018-19788 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 11% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, which ranks it in the top 4.3% of all scored CVEs.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2018-19788?
CVE-2018-19788 has a CVSS v3 base score of 8.8 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2018-19788?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2018-19788, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

Dependency Blast Radius

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