I don't believe this has anything to do with the release upgrader, it just happened to be the process which caused you to notice that the permissions were incorrect.
** Package changed: ubuntu-release-upgrader (Ubuntu) => policykit-1 (Ubuntu) ** Changed in: policykit-1 (Ubuntu) Status: Incomplete => New -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Touch seeded packages, which is subscribed to policykit-1 in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1767981 Title: Incorrect permissions on upgrade found for login Status in policykit-1 package in Ubuntu: New Bug description: I upgraded from 17.10 to 18.04, I ran czajkowski@penny:~$ sudo do-release-upgrade czajkowski@penny:~$ sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade czajkowski@penny:~$ sudo apt install update-manager-core Upgrade then started and about 4 mins the Error 1 image appeared, Incorrect permissions on /usr/lib/policykit-1/polkit-agent-helper-1(needs to be setuid root) a few mins later the login appeared for me to enter my password, it would not recognise my password Error 2. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04 Package: ubuntu-release-upgrader-core 1:18.04.17 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-20.21-generic 4.15.17 Uname: Linux 4.15.0-20-generic x86_64 ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7 Architecture: amd64 CrashDB: ubuntu CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME Date: Mon Apr 30 10:21:49 2018 EcryptfsInUse: Yes InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-12-20 (1226 days ago) InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140722.2) PackageArchitecture: all ProcEnviron: LANGUAGE=en_GB:en PATH=(custom, no user) XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set> LANG=en_GB.UTF-8 SHELL=/bin/bash SourcePackage: ubuntu-release-upgrader Symptom: dist-upgrade UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to bionic on 2018-04-29 (0 days ago) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/policykit-1/+bug/1767981/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages Post to : touch-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp