Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-4897

medium Nessus Plugin ID 303884

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Synopsis

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be patched.

Description

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

- A flaw was found in polkit. A local user can exploit this by providing a specially crafted, excessively long input to the `polkit-agent-helper-1` setuid binary via standard input (stdin). This unbounded input can lead to an out-of-memory (OOM) condition, resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS) for the system.
(CVE-2026-4897)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 303884

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2026_4897.nasl

Version: 1.9

Type: Local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 3/26/2026

Updated: 5/2/2026

Supported Sensors: Agentless Assessment, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Low

Score: 3.6

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Low

Base Score: 2.1

Temporal Score: 1.8

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-4897

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5.5

Temporal Score: 5.1

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:U/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:centos:centos:7, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:6, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:polkit, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:polkit-desktop-policy, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:polkit-devel, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:polkit-docs, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:policykit-1, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:polkit, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:polkit-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:polkit-docs, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:polkit-desktop-policy, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:policykit-1, cpe:/o:centos:centos:8, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:polkit-libs, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:polkit-libs, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:12.0, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:13.0, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:10

Required KB Items: Host/cpu, Host/local_checks_enabled, global_settings/vendor_unpatched, Host/OS/identifier

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 3/26/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-4897

Detections

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