GHSA-gqvf-892r-vjm5
MEDIUMGHSA-gqvf-892r-vjm5 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) CWE-295 vulnerability in puppet. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-gqvf-892r-vjm5 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Improper Certificate Validation in Puppet
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
Previously, Puppet operated on the model that a node with a valid certificate was entitled to all information in the system and that a compromised certificate allowed access to everything in the infrastructure. When a node's catalog falls back to the default node, the catalog can be retrieved for a different node by modifying facts for the Puppet run. This issue can be mitigated by setting strict_hostname_checking = true in puppet.conf on your Puppet master. Puppet 6.13.0 changes the default behavior for strict_hostname_checking from false to true. It is recommended that Puppet Open Source and Puppet Enterprise users that are not upgrading still set strict_hostname_checking to true to ensure secure behavior.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 💎RubyGems | puppet | ≥ 6.0.0&&< 6.13.0 | 6.13.0 |
| 💎RubyGems | puppet | all versions | 5.5.19 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for puppet. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update puppet to 6.13.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-gqvf-892r-vjm5 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 pinpoints whether GHSA-gqvf-892r-vjm5 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to GHSA-gqvf-892r-vjm5. 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.
In Red Hat OpenStack Platform, Puppet is invoked as a standalone component (puppet master is not run). This means that although the vulnerable code might be present, it is not used, resulting in a lowered impact rating and no update will be provided at this time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-gqvf-892r-vjm5 in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-gqvf-892r-vjm5 across RubyGems dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.