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)?

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 does O3 Security protect against CVE-2012-1988?

O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2012-1988 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.

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

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

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

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`

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
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-2012-1988 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.

Tailored to CVE-2012-1988. 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.

Red HatModerate

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

Ubuntu

USN-1419-1Ubuntu

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

Is CVE-2012-1988 in your dependencies?

O3 Security finds CVE-2012-1988 across RubyGems dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.

Scan my dependencies How O3 SCA works

CVE-2012-1988 — puppet