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Fencer Vulns
high 8.2

CVE-2020-16122 json

Packagekit's apt backend lets user install untrusted local packages

published 2020-11-07 6 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2020-8088

cvss
8.2
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.3%
EPSS 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 27%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

PackageKit's apt backend mistakenly treated all local debs as trusted. The apt security model is based on repository trust and not on the contents of individual files. On sites with configured PolicyKit rules this may allow users to install malicious packages.

Patch / fix

  • PackageKit packagekit 0.8.17-4ubuntu6~gcc5.4ubuntu1.5, 1.1.9-1ubuntu2.18.04.6, 1.1.13-2ubuntu1.1
  • packagekit Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1.2.1-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2020-16122

  • packagekit Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 0.8.17-4ubuntu6~gcc5.4ubuntu1.5
  • packagekit Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 1.1.9-1ubuntu2.18.04.6
  • packagekit Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 1.1.13-2ubuntu1.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2020-16122

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2020-16122 updated cvss 4.7

PackageKit: local user could possibly use this issue to install untrusted packages

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 PackageKit, PackageKit-qt, PackageKit-yum, PackageKit-cron, PackageKit-glib, PackageKit-gtk-module, +6 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 PackageKit, PackageKit-yum, PackageKit-cron, PackageKit-glib, PackageKit-yum-plugin, PackageKit-gtk3-module, +2 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 PackageKit, PackageKit-cron, PackageKit-glib, PackageKit-gtk3-module, PackageKit-gstreamer-plugin, PackageKit-command-not-found
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

0.34% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 27% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 8.2 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 2.1 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N

Affected products

  • PackageKit packagekit

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-269 Improper Privilege Management
  • CWE-345 Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.