# CVE-2017-2292: Deserialization in mcollective, Puppet, Puppet Enterprise

> An attacker can execute arbitrary code on the server by sending malicious YAML data to MCollective agents due to unsafe deserialization.

- **Severity:** Critical 9.0 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:L`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 30 Jun 2017
- **Updated:** 16 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2017-2292, GHSA-9hgj-f7f3-cph7, UBUNTU-CVE-2017-2292

## What is CVE-2017-2292?

CVE-2017-2292 is a critical unsafe deserialization vulnerability in mcollective, Puppet, Puppet Enterprise, published on 30 Jun 2017. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Versions of MCollective prior to 2.10.4 deserialized YAML from agents without calling safe_load, allowing the potential for arbitrary code execution on the server. The fix for this is to call YAML.safe_load on input. This has been tested in all Puppet-supplied MCollective plugins, but there is a chance that third-party plugins could rely on this insecure behavior.

Weakness: CWE-502 (Deserialization of Untrusted Data)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2017-2292?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Puppet Mcollective.

## How do I fix CVE-2017-2292?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2017-2292 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-2292 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2017-2292 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2017-2292 is a critical unsafe deserialization vulnerability in mcollective, Puppet, Puppet Enterprise, published on 30 Jun 2017. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-2292 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: mcollective, Puppet, Puppet Enterprise. 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-2017-2292/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-2292/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-2292
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-2292
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2017-2292

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-2292/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.