What is CVE-2014-5033?

CVE-2014-5033 is a vulnerability in KDE Kauth, classified under Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization (Race Condition). Published 2014-08-19.

Is CVE-2014-5033 known to be exploited?

1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Vulnerability in KDE Kauth

CVE-2014-5033

KDE kdelibs before 4.14 and kauth before 5.1 does not properly use D-Bus for communication with a polkit authority, which allows local users to bypass intended access restrictions by leveraging a PolkitUnixProcess PolkitSubject race condition via a (1) setuid process or (2) pkexec process, related to CVE-2013-4288 and "PID reuse race conditions."

Vulnerability class: Race Condition

Published 2014-08-19 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v2 metric

CVSS v2 base score 6.9 (Medium). Vector: AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C. This CVE predates CVSS v3 and has no v3 score from NVD.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.004 (27.1th percentile), scored 2026-09-29.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 27th percentile — 27.1% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.004 · newest: 0.004 · change: 0.000

Affected products

KDE Kauth
KDE Kdelibs — versions 4.10.0, 4.10.1, 4.10.2
Canonical Ubuntu Linux — versions 12.04, 14.04
Debian Kde4libs

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-362 — Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization (Race Condition)

Public proof-of-concept exploits

c-skills/CVEs

References

secunia.com/advisories/60385 (third-party-advisory)
rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2014-1359.html (vendor-advisory)
www.debian.org/security/2014/dsa-3004 (vendor-advisory)
www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2304-1 (vendor-advisory)
quickgit.kde.org/
www.kde.org/info/security/advisory-20140730-1.txt (Vendor Advisory)
secunia.com/advisories/60654 (third-party-advisory)
lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2014-08/msg00012.html (vendor-advisory)
secunia.com/advisories/60633 (third-party-advisory)
quickgit.kde.org/ (Exploit, Patch)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2014-5033?: CVE-2014-5033 is a vulnerability in KDE Kauth, classified under Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization (Race Condition). Published 2014-08-19.
Is CVE-2014-5033 known to be exploited?: 1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.