CVE-2012-1053 — puppet
CVE-2012-1053 is a CWE-264 vulnerability in puppet. A fix is available for puppet — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Puppet Privilege Escallation
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
Real-World Exposure
puppet💎puppetReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects RubyGems packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
The change_user method in the SUIDManager (lib/puppet/util/suidmanager.rb) in Puppet 2.6.x before 2.6.14 and 2.7.x before 2.7.11, and Puppet Enterprise (PE) Users 1.0, 1.1, 1.2.x, 2.0.x before 2.0.3 does not properly manage group privileges, which allows local users to gain privileges via vectors related to (1) the change_user not dropping supplementary groups in certain conditions, (2) changes to the eguid without associated changes to the egid, or (3) the addition of the real gid to supplementary groups.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 💎RubyGems | puppet | ≥ 2.6&&< 2.6.14 | 2.6.14bundle update puppet --conservative |
| 💎RubyGems | puppet | ≥ 2.7&&< 2.7.11 | 2.7.11bundle update puppet --conservative |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for puppet, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update puppet to 2.6.14 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2012-1053 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2012-1053 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2012-1053. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2012-1053 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2012-1053 across RubyGems dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.