# CVE-2018-6508: Code injection in Puppet Enterprise

> Remote attackers can execute arbitrary code via crafted strings in Puppet tasks, affecting users who utilize specific Puppet modules.

- **Severity:** High 8.0 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/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:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 9 Feb 2018
- **Updated:** 17 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2018-6508, GHSA-j433-wpfx-cxg3, UBUNTU-CVE-2018-6508

## What is CVE-2018-6508?

CVE-2018-6508 is a high-severity code injection vulnerability in Puppet Puppet Enterprise, published on 9 Feb 2018. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

Puppet Enterprise 2017.3.x prior to 2017.3.3 are vulnerable to a remote execution bug when a specially crafted string was passed into the facter_task or puppet_conf tasks. This vulnerability only affects tasks in the affected modules, if you are not using puppet tasks you are not affected by this vulnerability.

Weakness: CWE-134 (Use of Externally-Controlled Format String)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-6508?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Puppet Puppet Enterprise.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-6508?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2018-6508 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-6508 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-2018-6508 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-6508 is a high-severity code injection vulnerability in Puppet Puppet Enterprise, published on 9 Feb 2018. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-6508 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-2018-6508/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6508/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-6508
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-6508
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-6508

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6508/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.