Vulnerabilities
Misconfiguration
Compliance
CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2011-3870

Improper Link Resolution Before File Access ('Link Following')

Published: Oct 27, 2011 | Modified: Apr 11, 2025
CVSS 3.x
N/A
Source:
NVD
CVSS 2.x
6.3 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:C/A:C
RedHat/V2
6 IMPORTANT
AV:N/AC:M/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:P
RedHat/V3
Ubuntu
HIGH
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Additional information
NVDhttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2011-3870
CWEhttps://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/59.html

Puppet 2.7.x before 2.7.5, 2.6.x before 2.6.11, and 0.25.x allows local users to modify the permissions of arbitrary files via a symlink attack on the SSH authorized_keys file.

Weakness

The product attempts to access a file based on the filename, but it does not properly prevent that filename from identifying a link or shortcut that resolves to an unintended resource.

Affected Software

NameVendorStart VersionEnd Version
PuppetPuppet2.6.0 (including)2.6.0 (including)
PuppetPuppet2.6.1 (including)2.6.1 (including)
PuppetPuppet2.6.2 (including)2.6.2 (including)
PuppetPuppet2.6.3 (including)2.6.3 (including)
PuppetPuppet2.6.4 (including)2.6.4 (including)
PuppetPuppet2.6.5 (including)2.6.5 (including)
PuppetPuppet2.6.6 (including)2.6.6 (including)
PuppetPuppet2.6.7 (including)2.6.7 (including)
PuppetPuppet2.6.8 (including)2.6.8 (including)
PuppetPuppet2.6.9 (including)2.6.9 (including)
PuppetPuppet2.6.10 (including)2.6.10 (including)
PuppetPuppet2.7.2 (including)2.7.2 (including)
PuppetPuppet2.7.3 (including)2.7.3 (including)
PuppetPuppet2.7.4 (including)2.7.4 (including)
PuppetPuppetlabs2.7.0 (including)2.7.0 (including)
PuppetPuppetlabs2.7.1 (including)2.7.1 (including)
PuppetUbuntudevel*
PuppetUbuntulucid*
PuppetUbuntumaverick*
PuppetUbuntunatty*
PuppetUbuntuupstream*

Potential Mitigations

  • Follow the principle of least privilege when assigning access rights to entities in a software system.
  • Denying access to a file can prevent an attacker from replacing that file with a link to a sensitive file. Ensure good compartmentalization in the system to provide protected areas that can be trusted.

References

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