CVE-2016-2785

Puppet Server before 2.3.2 and Ruby puppetmaster in Puppet 4.x before 4.4.2 and in Puppet Agent before 1.4.2 might allow remote attackers to bypass intended auth.conf access restrictions by leveraging incorrect URL decoding.

Published: 2016-06-10 Last update: 2026-05-06 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2016-2785 is rated Moderate Risk (52.2/100): CVSS Critical severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.15%). Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

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-2016-2785

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 2025-07-13 0.09% 0.15% +0.06%
2 2025-03-30 0.43% 0.09% -0.34%
3 2025-03-29 — 0.43% —

Full EPSS history (7 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2016-2785

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
9.8 3.1 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 5.9 [email protected]
7.5 2.0 HIGH
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 10.0 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2016-2785

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2016-2785

GHSA-pqj5-7r86-64fv · Severity: critical · Ecosystem: rubygems — Puppet Improper Access Control

OS Trackers for CVE-2016-2785

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2016-2785 unimportant priority: Debian including 2 source packages (puppet, puppetserver), 4 status rows across 4 suites (bookworm, bullseye, sid, trixie): resolved 4. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2016-2785
gentoo normal CVE-2016-2785: 1 GLSA(s) (201606-02), 2 atom(s) (app-admin/puppet-agent, app-admin/puppetserver); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2016-2785
redhat low — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-2785
suse low CVE-2016-2785 severity low: SUSE including 2 source package names (puppet, puppet-server), 10 product×package rows across 8 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 SP4, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12, … (8 product lines)): Known Not Affected 10. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-2785/
ubuntu low CVE-2016-2785 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (puppet), 5 status rows across 5 suites (precise, trusty, upstream, wily, xenial): not-affected 4, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2016-2785

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2016-2785

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
puppet puppet 4.0.0 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet:4.0.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet 4.0.0 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet:4.0.0:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet 4.0.0 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet:4.0.0:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet 4.0.0 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet:4.0.0:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet 4.1.0 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet:4.1.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet 4.2.0 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet:4.2.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet 4.2.1 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet:4.2.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet 4.2.2 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet:4.2.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet 4.2.3 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet:4.2.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet 4.3.0 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet:4.3.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet 4.3.1 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet:4.3.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet 4.3.2 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet:4.3.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet 4.4.0 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet:4.4.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet 4.4.1 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet:4.4.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet_server 2.0.0 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet_server:2.0.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet_server 2.1.0 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet_server:2.1.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet_server 2.1.1 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet_server:2.1.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet_server 2.1.2 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet_server:2.1.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet_server 2.2.0 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet_server:2.2.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet_server 2.3.0 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet_server:2.3.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet_server 2.3.1 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet_server:2.3.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
puppet puppet_agent 1.4.1 cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet_agent:1.4.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2016-2785

cvelogic Threat Intelligence