CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2016-5716

Use of Externally-Controlled Format String

Published: Aug 09, 2017 | Modified: Jul 10, 2019
CVSS 3.x
8.8
HIGH
Source:
NVD
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS 2.x
6.5 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:P
RedHat/V2
RedHat/V3
Ubuntu

The console in Puppet Enterprise 2015.x and 2016.x prior to 2016.4.0 includes unsafe string reads that potentially allows for remote code execution on the console node.

Weakness

The product uses a function that accepts a format string as an argument, but the format string originates from an external source.

Affected Software

Name Vendor Start Version End Version
Puppet_enterprise Puppet 2015.2.0 (including) 2015.2.0 (including)
Puppet_enterprise Puppet 2015.2.1 (including) 2015.2.1 (including)
Puppet_enterprise Puppet 2015.2.2 (including) 2015.2.2 (including)
Puppet_enterprise Puppet 2015.2.3 (including) 2015.2.3 (including)
Puppet_enterprise Puppet 2015.3.0 (including) 2015.3.0 (including)
Puppet_enterprise Puppet 2015.3.1 (including) 2015.3.1 (including)
Puppet_enterprise Puppet 2015.3.2 (including) 2015.3.2 (including)
Puppet_enterprise Puppet 2015.3.3 (including) 2015.3.3 (including)
Puppet_enterprise Puppet 2016.1.1 (including) 2016.1.1 (including)
Puppet_enterprise Puppet 2016.1.2 (including) 2016.1.2 (including)
Puppet_enterprise Puppet 2016.2.0 (including) 2016.2.0 (including)
Puppet_enterprise Puppet 2016.2.1 (including) 2016.2.1 (including)

Extended Description

When an attacker can modify an externally-controlled format string, this can lead to buffer overflows, denial of service, or data representation problems. It should be noted that in some circumstances, such as internationalization, the set of format strings is externally controlled by design. If the source of these format strings is trusted (e.g. only contained in library files that are only modifiable by the system administrator), then the external control might not itself pose a vulnerability.

Potential Mitigations

References