# CVE-2011-3848: Path traversal in n/a

> Remote attackers can write X.509 Certificate Signing Requests to arbitrary locations via path traversal in Puppet.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.0 (`AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 27 Oct 2011
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2011-3848, GHSA-fg2j-w8mh-wrmp

## What is CVE-2011-3848?

CVE-2011-3848 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in n/a, published on 27 Oct 2011. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Directory traversal vulnerability in Puppet 2.6.x before 2.6.10 and 2.7.x before 2.7.4 allows remote attackers to write X.509 Certificate Signing Request (CSR) to arbitrary locations via (1) a double-encoded key parameter in the URI in 2.7.x, (2) the CN in the Subject of a CSR in 2.6 and 0.25.

Weakness: CWE-22 (Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2011-3848?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Puppet Puppet, Puppetlabs Puppet.

## How do I fix CVE-2011-3848?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2011-3848 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2011-3848 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2016-2785](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-2785/): Puppet Improper Access Control (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2021-27021](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-27021/): SQL injection in Puppet DB (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2018-6513](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6513/): Privilege escalation in Puppet Enterprise and Puppet Agent (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2018-6514](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6514/): Privilege escalation in Puppet Agent (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2018-6515](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6515/): Code injection in Puppet Agent (high 7.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2011-3848 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2011-3848 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in n/a, published on 27 Oct 2011. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2011-3848 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-3848/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-3848/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2011-3848
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2011-3848
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2011-3848

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-3848/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.