It was found that polkit could be tricked into bypassing the credential checks for D-Bus requests, elevating the privileges of the requestor to the root user. This flaw could be used by an unprivileged local attacker to, for example, create a new local administrator. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to data confidentiality and integrity as well as system availability.
CVE-2021-3560
“▲” beside the score: it is higher than NVD's CVSS score.
Score elevated to 9.0 because this CVE is listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2023-05-12), indicating real-world exploitation has been confirmed by US federal agencies. NVD baseline CVSS 7.8 retained for reference. The 9.0 is the floor for confirmed exploitation, not an impact rating: this CVE's impact severity (EG Severity) is CVSS 7.8 HIGH under GitHub Security Advisory CVSS. Confidence: HIGH.
- Actively exploited in the wild (CISA-KEV) — the reason this is sooner than the SSVC decision on this page at low or medium mission impact
A fix is available — apply it.
- CVSS v3
- 7.8
- EG Score
- 9.0CRITICALhigh confidence
- EG Risk
- 75EG Risk 75/100
EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score. It fuses impact severity (EG Severity, the CVSS base score, never the KEV-floored or EPSS-lifted EG Score) with real-world exploitation and automatability, under weights EchelonGraph set by hand, so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner.
How it’s computed (value × EchelonGraph’s weight)Severity78% × 45%Impact severity (EG Severity): CVSS 7.8 of 10. Never the KEV-floored or EPSS-lifted EG Score.Exploitation100% × 40%Fixed at 100% for a CISA KEV listing: EchelonGraph's rule.Automatability0% × 15%CISA's SSVC Automatable value: no (Vulnrichment).SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph): Track at low, Attend at medium and Act at high mission impact.Exploitation active (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE.Action: A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines at low, sooner than that at medium and as soon as possible at high mission impact. - EPSS PROB
- 24%
- EPSS %ILE
- 97th
- KEV
- ⚠ Exploited
What the EG score is made of (scorer v4.0: the three questions the 0–10 score mixes, published apart · methodology)
The EG score (9.0): severity, escalated by confirmed exploitation. This CVE's 9.0 is the CISA KEV floor for confirmed exploitation, not an impact rating: its impact severity (EG Severity) is CVSS 7.8 HIGH.
- EG Severity
- 7.8 HIGHCVSS-B, impact only: no KEV listing, EPSS or EG-KEV tier raises it.GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
- EG Likelihood
- 24% within 30 daysSource: FIRST EPSS (model v2026.06.15, score date 2026-10-23). FIRST's exploitation probability, not an EchelonGraph model.
- Confirmed exploitation
- CISA KEV and EG-KEV Tier 1 (exploited in the wild)Reported apart from the likelihood: an observed fact, not a probability.
- EG Priority
- SSVC Attend at medium mission impactTrack at low, Attend at medium and Act at high mission impact.CISA BOD 26-04: 3 days & forensic triage if the affected system is publicly exposed; 14 days if it is not.Each input and its source: the SSVC and BOD 26-04 blocks below.
SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph)Track at low, Attend at medium and Act at high mission impact.
A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines at low, sooner than that at medium and as soon as possible at high mission impact.
Exploitation active (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE. Mission impact is CISA's Mission & Well-being decision point, and only you can judge it. CISA's table makes it high when Mission Prevalence is Essential — the vulnerable component "directly provides capabilities that constitute at least one MEF for at least one entity" (MEF: mission essential function) — or when Public Well-Being Impact is Irreversible: "multiple fatalities are likely", the cyber-physical system "is likely lost or destroyed", "extreme or serious externalities" are imposed on other parties, or social systems such as elections or the financial grid "are destabilized and potentially collapse". CISA's decision table
BOD 26-04 (CISA's remediation timeline, Table 1)3 days & forensic triage if the affected system is publicly exposed; 14 days if it is not.
In CISA KEV yes (CISA's KEV catalog) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). Whether your system is publicly exposed is yours to answer. BOD 26-04 binds US Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies; for anyone else it is CISA's published timeline, a reference rather than an obligation. The directive · how EchelonGraph applies it
CISA required action“Apply updates per vendor instructions.”
Quoted verbatim from CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. CISA directs it at US federal civilian executive branch agencies under Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 26-04, which replaced BOD 22-01 on 10 June 2026; it is not EchelonGraph's advice. CISA's notes: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1961710 · https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-3560
Published
February 16, 2022
Last Modified
November 6, 2025
Advisory Details (5)
Auto-updated Oct 19, 2026Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog | CISA
Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog | CISA. Listed in CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2021-3560Privilege escalation with polkit: How to get root on Linux with a seven-year-old bug - The GitHub Blog
https://github.blog/2021-06-10-privilege-escalation-polkit-root-on-linux-with-bug/1961710 – (CVE-2021-3560) CVE-2021-3560 polkit: local privilege escalation using polkit_system_bus_name_get_creds_sync()
Affected: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.1 Extended Update Support
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1961710Packet Storm
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/172846/Facebook-Fizz-Denial-Of-Service.htmlVendor Advisories for CVE-2021-3560(2)
These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.
- CVE-2021-3560Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC)High
It was found that polkit could be tricked into bypassing the credential checks for D-Bus requests elevating the privileges of the requestor to the root user. This flaw could be used by an unprivileged local attacker to for example create a new local administrator. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to data confidentiality and integrity as well as system availability.
- RHSA-2021:2522Red Hat Product SecurityHigh
Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat Virtualization Host security update [ovirt-4.4.6]
Patch Availability(6)
| Vendor / Ecosystem | Fix (by version range) / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ubuntu | libpolkit-agent-1-dev (0.105-30ubuntu0.1) @ hirsute | 2026-10-23 | ubuntu |
| redhat | polkit-0:0.115-11.el8_3.2 | 2021-07-06 | redhat |
| redhat | redhat-virtualization-host-0:4.4.6-20210615.0.el8_4 | 2021-06-22 | redhat |
| redhat | polkit-0:0.115-11.el8_2.1 | 2021-06-03 | redhat |
| redhat | polkit-0:0.115-11.el8_4.1 | 2021-06-03 | redhat |
| redhat | polkit-0:0.115-9.el8_1.1 | 2021-06-03 | redhat |
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
(4 across 4 ecosystems)
Debian:11(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fix by version range | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| policykit-1 | — |
| — |
Debian:12(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fix by version range | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| policykit-1 | — |
| — |
Debian:13(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fix by version range | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| policykit-1 | — |
| — |
Debian:14(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fix by version range | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| policykit-1 | — |
| — |
Weakness Classification(2)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
Additional Vendor Advisories
(5)
Vendors that published advisories for this CVE beyond the curated set above. Broader coverage but minimal per-row detail — click through for the original advisory.
- Red HatRHSA-2021:2236IMPORTANT2021-06-03
RHSA-2021:2236 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2021:2237IMPORTANT2021-06-03
RHSA-2021:2237 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2021:2238IMPORTANT2021-06-03
RHSA-2021:2238 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2021:2555IMPORTANT2021-06-03
RHSA-2021:2555 — Important
- UbuntuUSN-4980-1HIGH
polkit vulnerability
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 31× in last 7d / 302× in last 30d)
Each row is a time one of our pipelines fetched, updated or re-scored this CVE. 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. An arrow marks a change the record states ("CVSS v3 → 9.1"); EPSS and GHSA rows show the values recorded at that time, not what changed (EPSS values are rounded; hover one for the exact figures). Most recent first.
Showing the most recent 100 of 1,871 refreshes on record for this CVE.
A repeat, a row identical to one the same pipeline wrote less than 10 seconds earlier, is not a separate refresh and is not counted. None are among the latest 100 rows. The 1,771 oldest rows on record are not shown and were not checked, so the counts can still include repeats.
- 2026-10-23 18:08 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-23 18:08 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-23 18:08 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-23 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 24% · 97th percentile
- 2026-10-22 19:22 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-22 19:22 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-22 19:22 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-22 16:29 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 24% · 97th percentile
- 2026-10-21 20:36 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-21 20:36 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-21 20:36 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-21 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 24% · 97th percentile
- 2026-10-20 21:48 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-20 21:48 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-20 21:47 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-20 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 24% · 97th percentile
- 2026-10-19 23:01 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-19 23:01 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-19 23:01 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-19 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 24% · 97th percentile
- 2026-10-19 00:13 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-19 00:13 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-19 00:13 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-18 08:58 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-18 01:26 UTCEG score recompute
Show 75 moreShow fewer
- 2026-10-18 01:26 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-18 01:26 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-17 16:29 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 24% · 97th percentile
- 2026-10-17 02:40 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-17 02:40 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-17 02:40 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-16 16:34 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 24% · 97th percentile
- 2026-10-16 03:53 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-16 03:53 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-16 03:53 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-15 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 24% · 97th percentile
- 2026-10-15 05:06 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-15 05:06 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-15 05:05 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-14 16:29 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 24% · 97th percentile
- 2026-10-14 06:19 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-14 06:19 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-14 06:19 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-13 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 24% · 97th percentile
- 2026-10-13 07:31 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-13 07:30 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-12 19:14 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-12 16:30 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 24% · 97th percentile
- 2026-10-12 08:43 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-12 08:42 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-12 04:30 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-12 04:30 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-12 00:19 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-12 00:18 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-11 20:07 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-11 20:07 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-11 20:06 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-11 15:55 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-11 15:55 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-11 15:55 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-11 13:44 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 24% · 97th percentile
- 2026-10-11 11:46 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-11 11:46 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-11 11:46 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-11 07:38 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-11 07:37 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-11 03:28 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-11 03:28 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-10 23:19 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-10 23:19 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-10 23:18 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-10 19:56 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 24% · 97th percentile
- 2026-10-10 19:09 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-10 19:08 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-10 14:57 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-10 14:57 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-10 10:48 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-10 10:48 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-10 06:39 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-10 06:39 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-10 02:29 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-10 02:29 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-09 22:20 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-09 22:20 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-09 22:20 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-09 20:04 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 24% · 97th percentile
- 2026-10-09 18:11 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-09 18:11 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-09 14:00 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-09 14:00 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-09 09:51 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-09 09:51 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-09 05:42 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-09 05:41 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-09 01:33 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-09 01:32 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-08 21:24 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-08 21:24 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-7c49-j253-wq5r · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-08 17:15 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-08 17:15 UTCVendor advisory
Publicly available exploits
(17 references, 10 shown)Public exploit code is referenced for this CVE (1 Metasploit module, 1 Exploit-DB entry, 15 GitHub PoCs). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly.
- Metasploitexploit/linux/local/polkit_dbus_auth_bypass✓ verifiedPublished Jul 8, 2021
Polkit D-Bus Authentication Bypass
Open source ↗ - Exploit-DBEDB-50011✓ verifiedPublished Jun 15, 2021
Polkit 0.105-26 0.117-2 - Local Privilege Escalation
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoCKyyomaa/CVE-2021-3560-EXPLOITPublished Mar 24, 2024
Part of my cybersecurity thesis consists in exploring and exploiting this vulnerability.
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoCLucasPDiniz/CVE-2021-3560Published Nov 8, 2023
Exploitation of the CVE-2021-3560 polkit vulnerability
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoCUNICORDev/exploit-CVE-2021-3560Published May 2, 2022
Exploit for CVE-2021-3560 (Polkit) - Local Privilege Escalation
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoCwinmin/CVE-2021-3560Published Apr 30, 2022
PolicyKit CVE-2021-3560 Exploitation (Authentication Agent)
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoCRicterZ/CVE-2021-3560-Authentication-AgentPublished Apr 29, 2022
PolicyKit CVE-2021-3560 Exploit (Authentication Agent)
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoCchenaotian/CVE-2021-3560Published Jan 31, 2022
CVE-2021-3560 analysis
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoC0dayNinja/CVE-2021-3560Published Jul 30, 2021
Polkit D-Bus Authentication Bypass Exploit
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoCBizarreLove/CVE-2021-3560Published Jul 28, 2021
NYCY_homework_&_meeting
Open source ↗
Related CVEs(same product + same vendor + same CWE)· as of October 22, 2026
Same product
10 shownDebian:11:policykit-1
Same vendor
4 shownredhat:RHSA-2021:2522 · redhat:RHSA-2021:2555
Frequently asked(6)
What is CVE-2021-3560?
When was the CVE record for CVE-2021-3560 published?
Is CVE-2021-3560 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2021-3560?
Which products are affected by CVE-2021-3560?
How do I remediate CVE-2021-3560?
Dependency Blast Radius
See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2021-3560
Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2021-3560?
EchelonGraph automatically scans your cloud infrastructure and maps CVE exposure using blast radius analysis.