Puppet Agent up to 1.6.0 pxp-agent Environment Variable code injection

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability identified as critical has been detected in Puppet Agent up to 1.6.0. The affected element is an unknown function of the component pxp-agent. Performing a manipulation as part of Environment Variable results in code injection. This vulnerability is cataloged as CVE-2016-5713. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. There is no exploit available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in Puppet Agent up to 1.6.0 (Service Management Software). This affects some unknown functionality of the component pxp-agent. The manipulation as part of a Environment Variable leads to a code injection vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-94. The product constructs all or part of a code segment using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the syntax or behavior of the intended code segment. This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

Versions of Puppet Agent prior to 1.6.0 included a version of the Puppet Execution Protocol (PXP) agent that passed environment variables through to Puppet runs. This could allow unauthorized code to be loaded. This bug was first introduced in Puppet Agent 1.3.0.

The bug was discovered 08/11/2016. The weakness was shared 12/06/2017 (Website). It is possible to read the advisory at puppet.com. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2016-5713 since 06/16/2016. The exploitability is told to be easy. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. No form of authentication is needed for exploitation. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available. The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1059 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

The vulnerability was handled as a non-public zero-day exploit for at least 482 days. During that time the estimated underground price was around $0-$5k.

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Service Management Software

Vendor

• Puppet

Name

• Agent

Version

• 1.0
• 1.1
• 1.2
• 1.3
• 1.4
• 1.5
• 1.6.0

CPE 2.3info

• 🔍
• 🔍
• 🔍

CPE 2.2info

• 🔍
• 🔍
• 🔍

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