Please reboot your system. Does that fix the issue?

This is happening with me too. When I run any program that requires root, the password prompt fails, and it closes.

This is an expected side-effect of the latest update of the package polkitd. You need to reboot the system after this upgrade.

It's written among the logs of apt full-upgrade (assuming you ran this command manually in a terminal), but the line is buried among other apt logs, so I guess most people won't see it...

┌──(kali㉿kali)-[~]
└─$ sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade
[...]
Setting up libpolkit-gobject-1-0:amd64 (127+really127-0kali1)…
Setting up libpolkit-agent-1-0:amd64 (127+really127-0kali1)…
Setting up polkitd (127+really127-0kali1)…
Upgrading to this polkitd version requires a reboot, please reboot the system when convenient.
Created symlink '/etc/systemd/system/sockets.target.wants/polkit-agent-helper.socket' → '/usr/lib/systemd/system/polkit-agent-helper.socket'.
[...]

Please reboot your system. Does that fix the issue?

sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade
not working

sudo

Please reboot your system. Does that fix the issue?

nothing work
┌──(root㉿kali)-[~]
└─# apt install --reinstall policykit-1 polkitd
Reinstallation of policykit-1 is not possible, it cannot be downloaded.
Summary:
Upgrading: 0, Installing: 0, Reinstalling: 1, Removing: 0, Not Upgrading: 0
Download size: 123 kB
Space needed: 0 B / 12.4 GB available

Continue? [Y/n] y
Get:1 http://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling/main amd64 polkitd amd64 127+really127-0kali1 [123 kB]
Fetched 123 kB in 1s (113 kB/s)
(Reading database ... 1052277 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../polkitd_127+really127-0kali1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking polkitd (127+really127-0kali1) over (127+really127-0kali1) ...
Setting up polkitd (127+really127-0kali1) ...
polkit-agent-helper.socket is a disabled or a static unit not running, not starting it.
Processing triggers for man-db (2.13.1-1) ...
Processing triggers for dbus (1.16.2-4) ...
Processing triggers for sgml-base (1.31+nmu1) ...
Processing triggers for kali-menu (2026.2.2) ...
Scanning processes...
Scanning linux images...

Running kernel seems to be up-to-date.

reboot but still same problem

What terminal do you use?

@krishnendu Can you provide the output of the following commands:

systemctl status polkit-agent-helper.socket

dpkg-query -W | grep -E 'base-files|kali-defaults|polkit|init-system'

update-alternatives --display x-terminal-emulator

──(private㉿kali)-[~]
└─$ systemctl status polkit-agent-helper.socket
○ polkit-agent-helper.socket - Authorization Manager Agent Helper
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/polkit-agent-helper.socket; disabled; preset: enabled)
Active: inactive (dead)
Docs: man:polkit(8)
Listen: /run/polkit/agent-helper.socket (Stream)
Accepted: 0; Connected: 0;

┌──(private㉿kali)-[~]
└─$ dpkg-query -W | grep -E 'base-files|kali-defaults|polkit|init-system'
base-files 1:2026.1.1
gir1.2-polkit-1.0:amd64 127+really127-0kali1
init-system-helpers 1.69+kali1
kali-defaults 2026.1.2
kali-defaults-desktop 2026.1.2
libpolkit-agent-1-0:amd64 127+really127-0kali1
libpolkit-gobject-1-0:amd64 127+really127-0kali1
libpolkit-qt5-1-1:amd64 0.200.0-4+b2
libpolkit-qt6-1-1:amd64 0.200.0-4+b2
polkit-kde-agent-1 4:6.5.4-1
polkitd 127+really127-0kali1

┌──(private㉿kali)-[~]
└─$ update-alternatives --display x-terminal-emulator
x-terminal-emulator - auto mode
link best version is /usr/bin/gnome-terminal.wrapper
link currently points to /usr/bin/gnome-terminal.wrapper
link x-terminal-emulator is /usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator
slave x-terminal-emulator.1.gz is /usr/share/man/man1/x-terminal-emulator.1.gz
/usr/bin/gnome-terminal.wrapper - priority 40
slave x-terminal-emulator.1.gz: /usr/share/man/man1/gnome-terminal.wrapper.1.gz
/usr/bin/koi8rxterm - priority 20
slave x-terminal-emulator.1.gz: /usr/share/man/man1/koi8rxterm.1.gz
/usr/bin/konsole - priority 40
/usr/bin/lxterm - priority 30
slave x-terminal-emulator.1.gz: /usr/share/man/man1/lxterm.1.gz
/usr/bin/tilix.wrapper - priority 30
slave x-terminal-emulator.1.gz: /usr/share/man/man1/tilix.1.gz
/usr/bin/uxterm - priority 20
slave x-terminal-emulator.1.gz: /usr/share/man/man1/uxterm.1.gz
/usr/bin/xterm - priority 20
slave x-terminal-emulator.1.gz: /usr/share/man/man1/xterm.1.gz

I'm having the same problem as the person you asked to use the commands.

I'm running KDE Plasma Desktop. My terminal is Konsole.

You should try that:

systemctl enable --now polkit-agent-helper.socket

Then reboot. Now the unit should be active:

# systemctl status polkit-agent-helper.socket
● polkit-agent-helper.socket - Authorization Manager Agent Helper
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/polkit-agent-helper.socket; enabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: active (listening) since Wed 2026-04-08 00:48:13 EDT; 6min ago
 Invocation: cb41812efd434b569f93350f58dff278
       Docs: man:polkit(8)
     Listen: /run/polkit/agent-helper.socket (Stream)
   Accepted: 1; Connected: 0;

Apr 08 00:48:13 kali systemd[1]: Listening on polkit-agent-helper.socket - Authorization Manager Agent Helper.

And you should be able to start a root terminal via the menu icon. Does that work?

(private㉿kali)-[~]
└─$ systemctl enable --now polkit-agent-helper.socket
Failed to enable unit: Access denied

I tried it, and rebooted, but still the same.

I'm not sure if this helps but I'm running Kali as a virtual machine in VMware Workstation with Win11 as the host.

I had a similar issue that happened earlier in the year which was resolved, but not sure if it's related.

It's in thread 0009497