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DEBIAN-CVE-2026-41651

Type: advisorySource: OSV1 source record

PackageKit is a a D-Bus abstraction layer that allows the user to manage packages in a secure way using a cross-distro, cross-architecture API. PackageKit between and including versions 1.0.2 and 1.3.4 is vulnerable to a time-of-check time-of-use (TOCTOU) race condition on transaction flags that allows unprivileged users to install packages as root and thus leads to a local privilege escalation. This is patched in version 1.3.5. A local unprivileged user can install arbitrary RPM packages as root, including executing RPM scriptlets, without authentication. The vulnerability is a TOCTOU race condition on `transaction->cached_transaction_flags` combined with a silent state-machine guard that discards illegal backward transitions while leaving corrupted flags in place. Three bugs exist in `src/pk-transaction.c`: 1. Unconditional flag overwrite (line 4036): `InstallFiles()` writes caller-supplied flags to `transaction->cached_transaction_flags` without checking whether the transaction has already been authorized/started. A second call blindly overwrites the flags even while the transaction is RUNNING. 2. Silent state-transition rejection (lines 873–882): `pk_transaction_set_state()` silently discards backward state transitions (e.g. `RUNNING` → `WAITING_FOR_AUTH`) but the flag overwrite at step 1 already happened. The transaction continues running with corrupted flags. 3. Late flag read at execution time (lines 2273–2277): The scheduler's idle callback reads cached_transaction_fl

Announced Group revision 1
Original source ↗

DEBIAN-CVE-2026-41651

Primary source · Revision 1

Imported from structured advisory data. Source references identify upstream records or fields; verify affected versions and your deployed configuration.

Security context

Source reference: osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2026-41651

packagekit

Source reference: /affected/0/package/name

Affected versions
1.2.6-5

Source reference: /affected/0/versions

Fixed versions
1.2.6-5+deb12u1

Source reference: /affected/0/ranges

Prerequisites
Not stated in this record

packagekit

Source reference: /affected/1/package/name

Affected versions
1.3.1-1

Source reference: /affected/1/versions

Fixed versions
1.3.1-1+deb13u1

Source reference: /affected/1/ranges

Prerequisites
Not stated in this record

packagekit

Source reference: /affected/2/package/name

Affected versions
1.3.1-1

Source reference: /affected/2/versions

1.3.2-1

Source reference: /affected/2/versions

1.3.3-1

Source reference: /affected/2/versions

1.3.4-1

Source reference: /affected/2/versions

1.3.4-3

Source reference: /affected/2/versions

Fixed versions
1.3.5-1

Source reference: /affected/2/ranges

Prerequisites
Not stated in this record

Structured affected-version data

Original package identities and version rules from this source.

[
  {
    "ranges": [
      {
        "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
        "events": [
          {
            "introduced": "0"
          },
          {
            "fixed": "1.2.6-5+deb12u1"
          }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "package": {
      "name": "packagekit",
      "purl": "pkg:deb/debian/packagekit?arch=source&distro=bookworm",
      "ecosystem": "Debian:12"
    },
    "versions": [
      "1.2.6-5"
    ],
    "database_specific": {
      "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2026-41651.json"
    },
    "ecosystem_specific": {
      "urgency": "not yet assigned"
    }
  },
  {
    "ranges": [
      {
        "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
        "events": [
          {
            "introduced": "0"
          },
          {
            "fixed": "1.3.1-1+deb13u1"
          }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "package": {
      "name": "packagekit",
      "purl": "pkg:deb/debian/packagekit?arch=source&distro=trixie",
      "ecosystem": "Debian:13"
    },
    "versions": [
      "1.3.1-1"
    ],
    "database_specific": {
      "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2026-41651.json"
    },
    "ecosystem_specific": {
      "urgency": "not yet assigned"
    }
  },
  {
    "ranges": [
      {
        "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
        "events": [
          {
            "introduced": "0"
          },
          {
            "fixed": "1.3.5-1"
          }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "package": {
      "name": "packagekit",
      "purl": "pkg:deb/debian/packagekit?arch=source&distro=forky",
      "ecosystem": "Debian:14"
    },
    "versions": [
      "1.3.1-1",
      "1.3.2-1",
      "1.3.3-1",
      "1.3.4-1",
      "1.3.4-3"
    ],
    "database_specific": {
      "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2026-41651.json"
    },
    "ecosystem_specific": {
      "urgency": "not yet assigned"
    }
  }
]

Publisher severity

No explicit severity was provided.

Event
#56437 · Revision 1
Added to Heist Feed
Publisher date
Read the original announcement

Revision history

  1. DEBIAN-CVE-2026-41651 · Revision 1Source updated