Amazon Linux 2023 Security Advisory: ALAS2023-2026-1639
Advisory Released Date: 2026-05-14
Advisory Updated Date: 2026-05-14
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_flags at dispatch time, not at authorization time. If flags were overwritten between authorization and execution, the backend sees the attacker's flags. (CVE-2026-41651)
Affected Packages:
PackageKit
Issue Correction:
Run dnf update PackageKit --releasever 2023.11.20260511 or dnf update --advisory ALAS2023-2026-1639 --releasever 2023.11.20260511 to update your system.
More information on how to update your system can be found on this page: Amazon Linux 2023 documentation
aarch64:
PackageKit-glib-debuginfo-1.2.8-2.amzn2023.0.2.aarch64
PackageKit-gtk3-module-debuginfo-1.2.8-2.amzn2023.0.2.aarch64
PackageKit-command-not-found-debuginfo-1.2.8-2.amzn2023.0.2.aarch64
PackageKit-debugsource-1.2.8-2.amzn2023.0.2.aarch64
PackageKit-cron-1.2.8-2.amzn2023.0.2.aarch64
PackageKit-command-not-found-1.2.8-2.amzn2023.0.2.aarch64
PackageKit-glib-devel-1.2.8-2.amzn2023.0.2.aarch64
PackageKit-gtk3-module-1.2.8-2.amzn2023.0.2.aarch64
PackageKit-glib-1.2.8-2.amzn2023.0.2.aarch64
PackageKit-debuginfo-1.2.8-2.amzn2023.0.2.aarch64
PackageKit-1.2.8-2.amzn2023.0.2.aarch64
src:
PackageKit-1.2.8-2.amzn2023.0.2.src
x86_64:
PackageKit-command-not-found-debuginfo-1.2.8-2.amzn2023.0.2.x86_64
PackageKit-debuginfo-1.2.8-2.amzn2023.0.2.x86_64
PackageKit-debugsource-1.2.8-2.amzn2023.0.2.x86_64
PackageKit-glib-devel-1.2.8-2.amzn2023.0.2.x86_64
PackageKit-1.2.8-2.amzn2023.0.2.x86_64
PackageKit-gtk3-module-debuginfo-1.2.8-2.amzn2023.0.2.x86_64
PackageKit-command-not-found-1.2.8-2.amzn2023.0.2.x86_64
PackageKit-glib-1.2.8-2.amzn2023.0.2.x86_64
PackageKit-gtk3-module-1.2.8-2.amzn2023.0.2.x86_64
PackageKit-cron-1.2.8-2.amzn2023.0.2.x86_64
PackageKit-glib-debuginfo-1.2.8-2.amzn2023.0.2.x86_64