CVE-2020-7942

Previously, Puppet operated on a model that a node with a valid certificate was entitled to all information in the system and that a compromised certificate allowed access to everything in the infrastructure. When a node's catalog falls back to the `default` node, the catalog can be retrieved for a different node by modifying facts for the Puppet run. This issue can be mitigated by setting `strict_hostname_checking = true` in `puppet.conf` on your Puppet master. Puppet 6.13.0 and 5.5.19 changes the default behavior for strict_hostname_checking from false to true. It is recommended that Puppet Open Source and Puppet Enterprise users that are not upgrading still set strict_hostname_checking to true to ensure secure behavior. Affected software versions: Puppet 6.x prior to 6.13.0 Puppet Agent 6.x prior to 6.13.0 Puppet 5.5.x prior to 5.5.19 Puppet Agent 5.5.x prior to 5.5.19 Resolved in: Puppet 6.13.0 Puppet Agent 6.13.0 Puppet 5.5.19 Puppet Agent 5.5.19

Published: 2020-02-19 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published

View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

Threat Intelligence & Risk Assessment for CVE-2020-7942

EPSS CVSS CWE GHSA Affected OS Tracker

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2020-7942 is rated Low Risk (35.4/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.12%). 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-2020-7942

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	2025-03-30	0.38%	0.12%	-0.26%
2	2025-03-29	0.07%	0.38%	+0.31%
3	2023-03-07	—	0.07%	—

Full EPSS history (7 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-7942

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score	Version	Severity	Vector	Exploitability	Impact	Score source
6.5	3.1	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N` 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:L) A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin. 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:N) Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged. Availability (A:N) Service keeps running; no real outage angle.	2.8	3.6	[email protected]
4.0	2.0	MEDIUM	`AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:N/A:N` 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:S) A single authentication is required. Confidentiality impact (C:P) Partial confidentiality impact. Integrity impact (I:N) No integrity impact. Availability impact (A:N) No availability impact.	8.0	2.9	[email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-7942

CWE-295 MITRE ↗

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2020-7942

GHSA-gqvf-892r-vjm5 · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: rubygems — Improper Certificate Validation in Puppet

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-7942

vendor	priority	summary	link
`debian`	unimportant	CVE-2020-7942 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (puppet), 1 status rows across 1 suites (bullseye): open 1.	https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-7942
`redhat`	medium	—	https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-7942
`suse`	medium	—	https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-7942/
`ubuntu`	medium	CVE-2020-7942 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (puppet), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bionic, eoan, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 4, needs-triage 1.	https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-7942

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-7942

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
puppet	puppet	>= 5.5.0, < 5.5.19	cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet::::::::
puppet	puppet	>= 6.0.0, < 6.13.0	cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet::::::::
puppet	puppet_agent	>= 5.5.0, < 5.5.19	cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet_agent::::::::
puppet	puppet_agent	>= 6.0.0, < 6.13.0	cpe:2.3:a:puppet:puppet_agent::::::::

References for CVE-2020-7942

URL	Tags
https://puppet.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-7942/	Vendor Advisory

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