Puppet Bolt privilege escalation vulnerabilityGHSA-289m-2964-f8q5
CRITICALGHSA-289m-2964-f8q5 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in bolt. A fix is available for bolt — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-289m-2964-f8q5.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
boltReal-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
In Puppet Bolt versions prior to 3.27.4, a path to escalate privileges was identified.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 💎RubyGems | bolt | all versions | 3.27.4bundle update bolt --conservative |
Affected Products
boltpuppetDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for bolt, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update bolt to 3.27.4 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-289m-2964-f8q5 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Close the privilege gap rather than the entry point: audit which accounts, roles and service identities can reach the affected operation, drop the component to the least privilege it actually needs, and review file and directory permissions created by earlier installs — a default left in place is what makes this reachable.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-289m-2964-f8q5 in your dependencies?
Find it across RubyGems, including transitive dependencies.