ArchWiki
wiki.archlinux.org › title › Polkit
polkit - ArchWiki
The default configuration for administrator identities is contained in the file /usr/share/polkit-1/rules.d/50-default.rules so any changes to that configuration should be made by copying the file to the /etc/polkit-1/rules.d directory and editing that file:
GitHub
github.com › polkit-org › polkit
GitHub - polkit-org/polkit: polkit (formerly PolicyKit) is a toolkit for defining and handling authorizations. It is used for allowing unprivileged processes to speak to privileged processes. · GitHub
polkit uses meson build system for configuration with ninja as backend and gcc as compiler.
Starred by 222 users
Forked by 82 users
Languages C 93.5% | Meson 2.5% | Shell 2.5% | JavaScript 0.9% | Python 0.6% | Perl 0.0%
freedesktop.org
freedesktop.org › software › polkit › docs › latest › polkit.8.html
polkit: polkit Reference Manual
The system architecture of polkit is comprised of the Authority (implemented as a service on the system message bus) and an Authentication Agent per user session (provided and started by the user's graphical environment). Actions are defined by applications.
SUSE
documentation.suse.com › sles › 15-SP7 › html › SLES-all › cha-security-polkit.html
The Polkit authentication framework | Security and Hardening Guide | SLES 15 SP7
June 25, 2024 - Instead of fully switching to the root user (using programs such as sudo) for gaining higher privileges, Polkit grants specific privileges to a user or group on an as-needed basis. This is controlled by configuration files that describe individual actions that need to be authorized in a dynamic context.
Red Hat
docs.redhat.com › en › documentation › red_hat_enterprise_linux › 7 › html › desktop_migration_and_administration_guide › policykit
Chapter 4. PolicyKit | Desktop Migration and Administration Guide | Red Hat Enterprise Linux | 7 | Red Hat Documentation
These new .rules files are stored in two locations; whereas polkit rules for local customization are stored in the /etc/polkit-1/rules.d/ directory, the third party packages are stored in /usr/share/polkit-1/rules.d/. The existing .conf and .pkla configuration files have been preserved and exist side by side with .rules files.
openSUSE
doc.opensuse.org › documentation › leap › security › html › book-security › cha-security-polkit.html
The Polkit authentication framework | Security and Hardening Guide | openSUSE Leap 15.6
Instead of fully switching to the root user (using programs such as sudo) for gaining higher privileges, Polkit grants specific privileges to a user or group on an as-needed basis. This is controlled by configuration files that describe individual actions that need to be authorized in a dynamic ...
Red Hat
docs.redhat.com › en › documentation › red_hat_enterprise_linux › 7 › pdf › desktop_migration_and_administration_guide › extending-polkit-configuration pdf
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Desktop Migration and Administration Guide
The rule is stored in the /etc/polkit-1/rules.d/10-enable-mount.rules file: Example 4.1. Allow Mounting a File system on a System device ... actions using their own password instead of asking for the root password. The default policy is defined in ... In the users panel of GNOME Settings, you can configure an account to an Administrator.
Gentoo Wiki
wiki.gentoo.org › wiki › Polkit
polkit - Gentoo wiki
Enabling this USE flag will pull in sys-auth/polkit automatically (default for desktop profiles): ... Data provided by the Gentoo Package Database · Last update: 2026-04-29 19:54 More information about USE flags · After setting this you want to update your system so the changes take effect: ... Depending on above USE flag settings, either elogind or systemd need to be configured...
Top answer 1 of 2
1
I needed the solution to the same problem on 21.04 and, after some research, come up with this. I'm pretty sure this will work on 20.04. Note that it (probably) requires a reboot and that allowed users need to me in the group "users".
gpasswd -a myuser users
cat > /etc/polkit-1/localauthority.conf.d/52-headless.conf <<EoT
[Remote sessions exemption]
Identity=unix-group:users
Action=*
ResultAny=yes
ResultInactive=yes
ResultActive=yes
EoT
2 of 2
0
I'm using xRDP via GUI (Not sure the problem you're encountering if you are using SSH only?). Create one or both of these files and adjust accordingly.
Give permissions to run Thunar as admin via xRDP
nano /etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/xrdp-thunar.pkla
[Authorize thunar for remote sessions]
Identity=unix-user:*
Action=org.xfce.thunar
ResultAny=auth_admin_keep
--OR-- for Gnome/Nautilus
nano /etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/10-remote-admin-allow.pkla
[Allow Remote Admin]
Identity=unix-group:sudo
Action=*
ResultAny=auth_admin_keep
ResultInactive=auth_admin_keep
ResultActive=auth_admin_keep
Linux.org
linux.org › docs › man8 › polkit.html
polkit - Authorization Manager at Linux.org
Such applications may use the PolkitAgentTextListener type or the pkttyagent(1) helper so the user can authenticate using a textual <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE policyconfig PUBLIC "-//freedesktop//DTD polkit Policy Configuration 1.0//EN" "http://www.freedesktop.org/sof...
Debian
wiki.debian.org › PolicyKit
PolicyKit - Debian Wiki
Policies installed locally should be installed to /etc/polkit-1/localauthority/.
Readthedocs
policykit.readthedocs.io › en › latest › gettingstarted.html
Installation and Getting Started — PolicyKit documentation
On this page, we will take you through the process of setting up PolicyKit, both for local development and on an Ubuntu server · PolicyKit requires Python 3. Our guide recommends that you manage the repository with a Python 3+ virtual environment
ADMIN Magazine
admin-magazine.com › Articles › Assigning-Privileges-with-sudo-and-PolicyKit
Assigning Privileges with sudo and PolicyKit » ADMIN Magazine
To grant a user access to a system function, the administrator needs to create a corresponding rule. All PolicyKit rules are gathered in the /etc/polkit-1/localauthority directory.
libvirt
wiki.libvirt.org › SSHPolicyKitSetup.html
libvirt: Configuring management access via PolicyKit
$ sudo cat /etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/50-org.example-libvirt-remote-access.pkla [libvirt Management Access] Identity=unix-group:libvirt Action=org.libvirt.unix.manage ResultAny=yes ResultInactive=yes ResultActive=yes
SUSE
documentation.suse.com › sles › 15-SP3 › html › SLES-all › cha-security-polkit.html
SUSE - Open Source Solutions for Enterprise Servers & Cloud
May 5, 2026 - Modernize your infrastructure with SUSE Linux Enterprise servers, cloud technology for IaaS, and SUSE's software-defined storage.
openSUSE
doc.opensuse.org › documentation › leap › archive › 15.0 › security › html › book.security › cha.security.policykit.html
Authorization with PolKit | Security Guide | openSUSE Leap 15.0
Whenever a process from the user session tries to carry out an action in the system context, PolKit is queried. Based on its configuration—specified in a so-called “policy”—the answer could be “yes”, “no”, or “needs authentication”. Unlike classical privilege authorization programs such as sudo, PolKit does not grant root permissions to an entire session, but only to the action in question.
Red Hat
docs.redhat.com › en › documentation › red_hat_enterprise_linux › 7 › html › desktop_migration_and_administration_guide › extending-polkit-configuration
4.4. Extending polkit Configuration | Desktop Migration and Administration Guide | Red Hat Enterprise Linux | 7 | Red Hat Documentation
Support for replacing the PolkitBackendActionLookup implementation (the interface used to provide data to authentication dialogs) has also been removed from polkit in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.
Reddit
reddit.com › r/opensuse › policykit configuration for group administration
r/openSUSE on Reddit: PolicyKit configuration for group administration
July 15, 2023 -
Hey, folks -- I'm getting up to speed on OpenSUSE, and I'm working on addressing one of the quirks that comes out of the box.
I'm accustomed to distributions where a wheel or sudo group can take adminsitrative actions as root; but the permissions model in OpenSUSE doesn't do that. Every subsystem responsible for authentication seems to assume that any user that wants to take action as root knows root's password. This is OK for a single-user desktop, but doesn't scale well if you have more than one administrator.
I've already fixed this in /etc/sudoers and kdesu, but there are still some applications that prompt for root's password instead of mine. These applications use PolicyKit for privilege escalation, and frankly I think I might be a little out of my depth trying to understand PolicyKit's byzantine configuration.
Has anyone ever tried to configure PolicyKit to prompt for your user password instead of root's? What changes do I need to make to enable this?
Top answer 1 of 3
4
Thanks, everybody -- after some trial-and-error with the Javascript rules, I ended up coming up with the solution. Create the new file /usr/share/polkit-1/rules.d/40-wheel.rules, with the contents: polkit.addAdminRule(function(action, subject) { return ["unix-group:wheel"]; }); This seems to do the trick.
2 of 3
1
Read /etc/sudoers to understand why you have to know root's password. I'm not sure PK has the possibility of authenticating against other than root -- but that's likely because about all I ever do is pkcon refresh to make the idiotcator go away after I've updated.
Hyprland Wiki
wiki.hypr.land › Hypr-Ecosystem › hyprpolkitagent
hyprpolkitagent – Hyprland Wiki
13 hours ago - If Hyprland is started with uwsm, you can autostart the polkit agent with the command systemctl --user enable --now hyprpolkitagent.service.