# ly4k/PwnKit

Self-contained exploit for CVE-2021-4034 - Pkexec Local Privilege Escalation

Repository: https://github.com/ly4k/PwnKit
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/pwnkit
Language: C
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: cve-2021-4034
Last push: 2022-06-21T14:52:05+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 1680, "days_push": 1534, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1326, forks 206 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:22.743813+00:00)

## What it is
A self-contained exploit for CVE-2021-4034 (PwnKit), a local privilege escalation vulnerability in polkit's pkexec. It ships as a prebuilt binary and one-liner script that grants a root shell on vulnerable Linux distributions.

## Use cases
- exploit CVE-2021-4034 pkexec local privilege escalation
- test whether a Linux host is patched against PwnKit
- get a root shell on a vulnerable Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, or CentOS machine
- demonstrate polkit privilege escalation in a pentest report
- verify patch effectiveness by running the exploit against patched systems

## When to choose
- you need a self-contained, dependency-free exploit binary that works out of the box
- you are validating whether systems are vulnerable to PwnKit during a security assessment
- you want a one-liner or single-command exploit for CVE-2021-4034

## When to avoid
- the target system has already been patched for CVE-2021-4034
- you need a general privilege-escalation enumeration tool rather than a single-CVE exploit
- you are not authorized to test the target system

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: stable
- function: security, penetration-testing, cli
- domain: security, penetration-testing, operating-systems
- platform: cli, c
- tags: cve-2021-4034, privilege-escalation, exploit, polkit, pkexec, pwnkit, red-team, linux

## Member repositories
- ly4k/PwnKit (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:22.743813+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T04:46:23.506781+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/ly4k/PwnKit (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:22.743813+00:00, sha 7973a6a63dc0)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.