CVE-2013-1652 in Puppet
Summary
by MITRE
Puppet before 2.6.18, 2.7.x before 2.7.21, and 3.1.x before 3.1.1, and Puppet Enterprise before 1.2.7 and 2.7.x before 2.7.2 allows remote authenticated users with a valid certificate and private key to read arbitrary catalogs or poison the master s cache via unspecified vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/01/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2013-1652 affects the Puppet configuration management system, specifically targeting versions prior to the patched releases mentioned in the description. This represents a critical security flaw that undermines the integrity and confidentiality of Puppet master servers. The vulnerability stems from insufficient validation mechanisms within the catalog generation and caching processes, allowing authenticated attackers to exploit their valid certificates and private keys to access unauthorized system configurations.
The technical flaw manifests through unspecified vectors that enable attackers to either read arbitrary catalogs or poison the master's cache. This issue falls under the category of privilege escalation and information disclosure, with potential impacts extending beyond simple data access to system compromise. The vulnerability operates at the application layer, specifically within Puppet's certificate-based authentication and catalog serving mechanisms. Attackers with valid certificates and private keys can leverage these credentials to bypass normal access controls and retrieve catalog information that should be restricted to specific nodes or users.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is significant as it allows remote authenticated users to potentially access sensitive configuration data across the entire Puppet infrastructure. Catalog poisoning attacks can lead to unauthorized modifications of system configurations, potentially resulting in service disruption, privilege escalation, or complete system compromise. The vulnerability affects multiple major version streams including Puppet 2.x and 3.x, indicating a widespread impact across the Puppet ecosystem and requiring coordinated patching efforts across organizations using these versions.
Organizations using affected Puppet versions face substantial risk of unauthorized access to their infrastructure configurations, which could include sensitive data such as user credentials, system paths, and service configurations. The vulnerability's classification aligns with CWE-284 for improper access control and potentially CWE-345 for insufficient verification of data authenticity. From an adversarial perspective, this vulnerability maps to ATT&CK technique T1078 for valid accounts and T1566 for credential harvesting, as attackers could leverage legitimate certificates to gain unauthorized access.
Mitigation strategies should focus on immediate patching of all affected Puppet versions to the latest releases containing the security fixes. Organizations should also implement additional monitoring of catalog access patterns and cache modifications to detect potential exploitation attempts. Certificate management practices should be reviewed and strengthened to ensure proper certificate lifecycle management and access controls. Network segmentation and access controls around Puppet masters should be enforced to limit exposure, while regular security assessments should verify the effectiveness of implemented controls. The vulnerability highlights the importance of maintaining up-to-date security patches and proper certificate management in configuration management systems.