CVE-2012-1989

telnet.rb in Puppet 2.7.x before 2.7.13 and Puppet Enterprise (PE) 1.2.x, 2.0.x, and 2.5.x before 2.5.1 allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on the NET::Telnet connection log (/tmp/out.log).

Published: 2012-06-27 Last update: 2026-04-29 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2012-1989 is rated Low Risk (23/100): CVSS Low severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.09%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2012-1989

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2025-03-17 0.04% 0.09% +0.05%
2 2023-03-07 1.28% 0.04% -1.24%
3 2022-02-04 1.28%

Full EPSS history (3 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2012-1989

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
3.6 2.0 LOW
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
3.9 4.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2012-1989

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2012-1989

GHSA-c5qq-g673-5p49 · Severity: low · Ecosystem: rubygems — Puppet allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack

OS Trackers for CVE-2012-1989

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2012-1989 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (puppet), 1 status rows across 1 suites (bullseye): resolved 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2012-1989
gentoo high CVE-2012-1989: 1 GLSA(s) (201208-02), 1 atom(s) (app-admin/puppet); latest impact high. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2012-1989
redhat low https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2012-1989
ubuntu low CVE-2012-1989 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (puppet), 6 status rows across 6 suites (hardy, lucid, maverick, natty, oneiric, upstream): not-affected 3, ignored 1, needs-triage 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2012-1989

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2012-1989

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
puppet puppet 2.7.3 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet:2.7.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet 2.7.4 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet:2.7.4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet 2.7.5 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet:2.7.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet 2.7.6 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet:2.7.6:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet 2.7.8 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet:2.7.8:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet 2.7.9 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet:2.7.9:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet 2.7.10 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet:2.7.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet 2.7.11 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet:2.7.11:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet 2.7.12 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet:2.7.12:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppetlabs puppet 2.7.0 cpe:2.3:a:puppetlabs:puppet:2.7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppetlabs puppet 2.7.1 cpe:2.3:a:puppetlabs:puppet:2.7.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet_enterprise 1.2.0 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet_enterprise:1.2.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet_enterprise 1.2.1 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet_enterprise:1.2.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet_enterprise 1.2.2 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet_enterprise:1.2.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet_enterprise 1.2.3 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet_enterprise:1.2.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet_enterprise 1.2.4 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet_enterprise:1.2.4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet_enterprise 2.0.0 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet_enterprise:2.0.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet_enterprise 2.0.1 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet_enterprise:2.0.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet_enterprise 2.0.2 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet_enterprise:2.0.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet_enterprise 2.5.0 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet_enterprise:2.5.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2012-1989

cvelogic Threat Intelligence