Security Strategies in Linux Platforms and Applications, 3rd Edition

Authorizing Access with the Polkit

The polkit package, developed by the freedesktop.org group, is a way of solving the administrative permission problem. When programs need to temporarily escalate privileges, the polkit is a framework to provide the higher-level function without having to have the whole program gain administrative access.

The polkit is written with authentication agents and applications that use the authentication agents. There is an application programming interface (API) for the framework that allows applications to be written to use the polkit implementation. Where escalation of privileges works well on the command line with sudo or su, when it comes to graphical programs, there aren’t really the same mechanisms that work ...