A possibility of unauthorized Xorg X11 Server configuration file modification / injection was found in the way SetX11Keyboard() method of systemd, a system and service manager, performed sanitization of provided X Keyboard Extension (XKB) layouts description (special and control characters were not filtered out from the layout description properly). When the host in question used PolicyKit Local Authority (PKLA) file mechanism to grant group of users the privilege to change XKB settings (instead of default PolicyKit check) and particular local attacker was member of that group, they could use this flaw to inject arbitrary values into the Xorg X11 Server configuration file, possibly leading to escalation of their privileges. Issue found by Florian Weimer, Red Hat Product Security Team
This was assigned CVE-2013-4394: http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2013/10/01/9
Acknowledgements: This issue was discovered by Florian Weimer of the Red Hat Product Security Team.
Upstream patch: http://cgit.freedesktop.org/systemd/systemd/commit/?id=8d789b905dba8aebd30238520b6ad52fb866af95
This issue has been addressed in the version of systemd as shipped with Fedora 18 and 19. (Current versions are not affected)