How severe is CVE-2012-1988?

No CVSS score has been assigned to CVE-2012-1988 yet. Review the advisory details and affected package list to assess your exposure.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2012-1988?

CVE-2012-1988 affects the following packages: puppet (RubyGems), puppet (RubyGems). Ecosystems affected: RubyGems.

How do I fix CVE-2012-1988?

Update puppet to 2.6.15 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2012-1988 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2012-1988 in my RubyGems dependencies?

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.

How do I mitigate CVE-2012-1988 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

Stop passing untrusted input into the interpreter or shell: call the affected binary with an argument array rather than a composed command string, reject anything outside a strict allowlist of expected values, and run the component under an account that cannot reach beyond the work it legitimately does.

Is CVE-2012-1988 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2012-1988 yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2012-1988?

CVE-2012-1988 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 2.6%, placing it in the 85th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2012-1988?

CVE-2012-1988 is classified as OS Command Injection (CWE-78). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation. This is a high-impact weakness class that often enables remote code execution or data exposure.

When was CVE-2012-1988 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2012-1988 was published on May 29, 2012 and was last updated on April 10, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

CVE-2012-1988: puppet — Fixed in 2.6.15

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

2.6%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs85th percentile — riskier than 85% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

Real-World Exposure

2 pkgs affected

💎puppet💎puppet

Real-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 allows remote authenticated users with agent SSL keys and file-creation permissions on the puppet master to execute arbitrary commands by creating a file whose full pathname contains shell metacharacters, then performing a filebucket request.

Affected Packages

2 total 2 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
💎RubyGems	`puppet`	≥ 2.6.0&&< 2.6.15	2.6.15`bundle update puppet --conservative`
💎RubyGems	`puppet`	≥ 2.7.0&&< 2.7.13	2.7.13`bundle update puppet --conservative`

Affected Products

5 products · 13 configurations

OS

ubuntu linuxcanonical

3 versions

10.0411.0411.10

OS

debian linuxdebian

2 versions

6.07.0

OS

fedorafedoraproject

3 versions

151617

Application

puppetpuppet

≥ 2.7.0 && < 2.7.13

range

Application

puppet enterprisepuppet

≥ 1.2.0 && < 2.5.1

2 versions

1.01.1

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
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-2012-1988 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Stop passing untrusted input into the interpreter or shell: call the affected binary with an argument array rather than a composed command string, reject anything outside a strict allowlist of expected values, and run the component under an account that cannot reach beyond the work it legitimately does.

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.

Red HatModerate

Product	Fixed in	Advisory
CloudForms for RHEL 6	`converge-ui-devel-0:1.0.4-1.el6cf`	RHSA-2012:1542

Frequently Asked Questions

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 allows remote authenticated users with agent SSL keys and file-creation permissions on the puppet master to execute arbitrary commands by creating a file whose full pathname contains shell metacharacters, then performing a filebucket request.

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

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CVE-2012-1988 — puppet