# CVE-2017-2296: Denial of service in Puppet Enterprise

> Attackers can cause a denial of service in Puppet Enterprise by using specially formatted strings in node group or role names.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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:** 1 Feb 2018
- **Updated:** 17 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-cc93-3xjh-46wh

## What is CVE-2017-2296?

CVE-2017-2296 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Puppet Puppet Enterprise, published on 1 Feb 2018. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In Puppet Enterprise 2017.1.x and 2017.2.1, using specially formatted strings with certain formatting characters as Classifier node group names or RBAC role display names causes errors, effectively causing a DOS to the service. This was resolved in Puppet Enterprise 2017.2.2.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2017-2296?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Puppet Puppet Enterprise.

## How do I fix CVE-2017-2296?

No fix has been published for CVE-2017-2296 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2017-2296 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-2296 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Puppet Puppet Enterprise

- [CVE-2023-2530](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-2530/): Privilege escalation in Puppet Enterprise (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2019-10694](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-10694/): Hardcoded credentials in Puppet Enterprise (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2018-11749](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-11749/): Information disclosure in Puppet Enterprise (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2021-27020](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-27020/): Other in Puppet Enterprise (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2015-5686](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-5686/): Cross-site request forgery in n/a (high 8.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2017-2296 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2017-2296 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Puppet Puppet Enterprise, published on 1 Feb 2018. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-2296 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: 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-2017-2296/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-2296/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-2296
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-2296
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2017-2296

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-2296/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.