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Securityaffairs.Co •Pierluigi Paganini • April 24, 2026

‘Pack2TheRoot’ flaw lets local Linux users gain root via PackageKit. CVE-2026-41651 (8.8) has existed for nearly 12 years. The Pack2TheRoot flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-41651, lets unprivileged users install or remove system packages without authorization, potentially gaining full root access. The vulnerability is rated high severity, CVSS score of 8.8, and has existed for nearly 12 […]

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This article is one source in a clustered incident — the cluster page carries the summary, timeline and every other outlet covering it.

Critical Pack2TheRoot Vulnerability Exposes Linux Systems to Local Privilege Escalation A high-severity vulnerability identified as CVE-2026-41651 affects the PackageKit daemon, allowing local unprivileged users to gain root access on Linux systems. Discovered by Deutsche Telekom's Red Team, the flaw enables unauthorized installation and removal of system packages. The vulnerability has existed for nearly 12 years, affecting all PackageKit versions from 1.0.2 to 1.3.4. A patch was released in version 1.3.5, but many distributions are still vulnerable. The exploit can be triggered by executing commands like 'pkcon install' without authentication under certain conditions. Although no active exploitation has been confirmed, the vulnerability leaves observable traces in system logs. Users are urged to upgrade to the patched version immediately to mitigate risks. 4 sources 71

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Extracted Entities

CVEs (1)

CWE Weaknesses (1)

MITRE ATT&CK (1)

Platforms (2)