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Fencer Intel
low 3.6

CVE-2012-1989 json

Puppet allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack

published 2012-06-27 14 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also GHSA-c5qq-g673-5p49 , EUVD-2017-0212

cvss
3.6
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.4%
EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 34%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

telnet.rb in Puppet 2.7.x before 2.7.13 and Puppet Enterprise (PE) 1.2.x, 2.0.x, and 2.5.x before 2.5.1 allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on the NET::Telnet connection log (/tmp/out.log).

Patch / fix

  • rubygems puppet 2.7.13
  • puppet Debian 11 2.7.13-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2012-1989

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2012-1989 updated cvss 1.9

puppet: Insecure temporary file use for NET::Telnet connection log (/tmp/out.log)

  • Red Hat Enterprise MRG 1 puppet
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

0.40% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 34% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 3.6 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:P

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
rubygems puppet
>=2.7.1, <2.7.13
2.7.13

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-264 Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.