CVE-2012-1906 — puppet
CVE-2012-1906 is a CWE-264 vulnerability in puppet. A fix is available for puppet — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Puppet uses predictable filenames, allowing arbitrary file overwrite
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
Puppet 2.6.x before 2.6.15 and 2.7.x before 2.7.13, and Puppet Enterprise (PE) Users 1.0, 1.1, 1.2.x, 2.0.x, and 2.5.x before 2.5.1 uses predictable file names when installing Mac OS X packages from a remote source, which allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files or install arbitrary packages via a symlink attack on a temporary file in /tmp.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 💎RubyGems | puppet | ≥ 2.6&&< 2.6.15 | 2.6.15bundle update puppet --conservative |
| 💎RubyGems | puppet | ≥ 2.7&&< 2.7.13 | 2.7.13bundle 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 2.6.15 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2012-1906 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-2012-1906 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2012-1906. 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-2012-1906 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2012-1906 across RubyGems dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.