# CVE-2018-6513: Privilege escalation in Puppet Enterprise and Puppet Agent

> An unprivileged user on Windows agents can escalate privileges by writing custom facts that load shared libraries from untrusted paths during Puppet runs.

- **Severity:** High 8.8 (`CVSS:3.0/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:** 11 Jun 2018
- **Updated:** 17 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-wp4f-g5j5-6f78

## What is CVE-2018-6513?

CVE-2018-6513 is a high-severity vulnerability in Puppet Puppet Enterprise, published on 11 Jun 2018. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Puppet Enterprise 2016.4.x prior to 2016.4.12, Puppet Enterprise 2017.3.x prior to 2017.3.7, Puppet Enterprise 2018.1.x prior to 2018.1.1, Puppet Agent 1.10.x prior to 1.10.13, Puppet Agent 5.3.x prior to 5.3.7, and Puppet Agent 5.5.x prior to 5.5.2, were vulnerable to an attack where an unprivileged user on Windows agents could write custom facts that can escalate privileges on the next puppet run. This was possible through the loading of shared libraries from untrusted paths.

Weakness: CWE-426 (Untrusted Search Path)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-6513?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Puppet Puppet, Puppet Puppet Enterprise.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-6513?

No fix has been published for CVE-2018-6513 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2018-6513 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-6513 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Puppet Puppet Enterprise

- [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-2018-6514](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)
- [CVE-2013-1655](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-1655/): Puppet Improper Input Validation vulnerability (high 7.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-6513 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-6513 is a high-severity vulnerability in Puppet Puppet Enterprise, published on 11 Jun 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-2018-6513 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-2018-6513/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6513/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-6513
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-6513
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-6513

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6513/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.