# CVE-2017-2290: Privilege escalation in mcollective-puppet-agent plugin

> A non-administrator user can create an executable that runs with administrator privileges during the next Puppet run, allowing privilege escalation.

- **Severity:** High 8.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 3 Mar 2017
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-5m29-c83w-r9hf

## What is CVE-2017-2290?

CVE-2017-2290 is a high-severity vulnerability in mcollective-puppet-agent plugin, published on 3 Mar 2017. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

On Windows installations of the mcollective-puppet-agent plugin, version 1.12.0, a non-administrator user can create an executable that will be executed with administrator privileges on the next "mco puppet" run. Puppet Enterprise users are not affected. This is resolved in mcollective-puppet-agent 1.12.1.

Weakness: CWE-732 (Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2017-2290?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Puppet Mcollective-Puppet-Agent.

## How do I fix CVE-2017-2290?

No fix has been published for CVE-2017-2290 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2017-2290 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-2290 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2017-2290 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2017-2290 is a high-severity vulnerability in mcollective-puppet-agent plugin, published on 3 Mar 2017. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-2290 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: mcollective-puppet-agent plugin. 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-2017-2290/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-2290/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-2290
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-2290
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2017-2290

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-2290/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.