CVE-2018-19788

HIGHNVD 8.88.8—Weaponized

8.8

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)
EPSS: 98.3%
KEV: Not listed

Published

December 3, 2018

Last Modified

November 21, 2024

References (19)

cve@mitrehttps://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:2046
cve@mitrehttps://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:3232
cve@mitrehttps://bugs.debian.org/915332
cve@mitrehttps://gitlab.freedesktop.org/polkit/polkit/issues/74
cve@mitrehttps://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2019/01/msg00021.html
cve@mitrehttps://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201908-14
cve@mitrehttps://usn.ubuntu.com/3861-1/
cve@mitrehttps://usn.ubuntu.com/3861-2/
cve@mitrehttps://www.debian.org/security/2018/dsa-4350
af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:2046
af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:3232
af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://bugs.debian.org/915332
af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/polkit/polkit/issues/74
af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2019/01/msg00021.html
af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201908-14

Patch Availability(4)

Vendor / Ecosystem	Fixed in / Patch	Released	Source
ubuntu	libpolkit-backend-1-0 (0.104-1ubuntu1.4) @ precise	2026-05-28	ubuntu
ubuntu	policykit-1-doc (0.105-14.1ubuntu0.4) @ xenial	2026-05-28	ubuntu
redhat	polkit-0:0.112-18.el7_6.2	2019-10-29	redhat
redhat	polkit-0:0.112-22.el7	2019-08-06	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.

Weakness Classification(1)

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

CWE-20Improper Input Validation

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 10× in last 7d / 20× 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.

2026-06-08 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
2026-06-08 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
2026-06-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
2026-06-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
2026-06-05 22:45 UTCEPSS rescore
2026-06-05 22:45 UTCEPSS rescore
2026-06-05 06:08 UTCEPSS rescore
2026-06-05 06:08 UTCEPSS rescore
2026-06-02 20:11 UTCEPSS rescore
2026-06-02 20:11 UTCEPSS rescore
2026-06-01 13:50 UTCEPSS rescore
2026-06-01 13:50 UTCEPSS rescore
2026-05-31 00:14 UTCEPSS rescore
2026-05-31 00:14 UTCEPSS rescore
2026-05-29 13:41 UTCEPSS rescore
2026-05-28 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
2026-05-28 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
2026-05-28 00:43 UTCEG score recompute
2026-05-28 00:43 UTCVendor advisory
2026-05-28 00:42 UTCGHSA enrichment

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 ↗

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 98.3% percentile likelihood of exploitation in the next 30 days — higher percentiles indicate greater predicted risk.

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

See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2018-19788

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CVE-2018-19788

Published

Last Modified

References (19)

Patch Availability(4)

Weakness Classification(1)

All Vendor Advisories

Data Freshness Timeline

Publicly available exploits

Frequently asked(5)

Dependency Blast Radius

Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2018-19788?

Same vendor

Same CWE

CVE-2018-19788

📅 Published

🔄 Last Modified

🔗 References (19)

Patch Availability(4)

Weakness Classification(1)

All Vendor Advisories

Data Freshness Timeline

Publicly available exploits

❓ Frequently asked(5)

Dependency Blast Radius

Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2018-19788?

🔗 Related CVEs(same vendor + same CWE)

Same vendor

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Published

Last Modified

References (19)

Frequently asked(5)

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