Code Injection in Puppet Agent (CVE-2016-5713)
Summary
Code injection in Puppet Agent (CVE-2016-5713). Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover.
Original description
The description as published by the source.
Versions of Puppet Agent prior to 1.6.0 included a version of the Puppet Execution Protocol (PXP) agent that passed environment variables through to Puppet runs. This could allow unauthorized code to be loaded. This bug was first introduced in Puppet Agent 1.3.0.
Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database NVD
Auto-generated summary
Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.
A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2016-5713 has been found in Puppet Agent.
Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover. CVSS score: 9.8/10.
What to do: apply the vendor's official patched release.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Puppet Agent CVE-2016-5713" on the vendor's site.
CVE-2016-5713 (Puppet Agent) — CWE-94 / CVSS v3 9.8
Attack vector: remote (network-reachable) / unauthenticated / no user interaction
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.
Arbitrary code execution (CWE-94) exists in Puppet Agent.
Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of Puppet Agent.
Severity: Critical (CVSS 9.8/10). Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover.
Update to the patched release per vendor advisory.
Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.
Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Audit SBOM/dependencies to find affected services.
Response actions
Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order
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1Identify exposure identify
Audit SBOM/dependencies for affected components.資産台帳・SBOM・依存マニフェストで Puppet Agent を使っているサービスとバージョンを洗い出す。
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2Post-deployment verification verify
Confirm patched version is live in productionパッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。
Fix status by distribution
Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE
- Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2016-5713 puppet Fixed in: 4.7.0-1
References
- advisory puppet.com