# CVE-2018-6515: Code injection in Puppet Agent

> An attacker can execute arbitrary code and escalate privileges on Windows systems by providing a specially crafted configuration file to the Puppet Agent.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 11 Jun 2018
- **Updated:** 16 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-5xw6-x436-6c39

## What is CVE-2018-6515?

CVE-2018-6515 is a high-severity code injection vulnerability in Puppet Agent, published on 11 Jun 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

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 on Windows only, with a specially crafted configuration file an attacker could get pxp-agent to load arbitrary code with privilege escalation.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-6515?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Puppet Puppet.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-6515?

No fix has been published for CVE-2018-6515 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2018-6515 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-6515 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Puppet Agent

- [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-2018-6513](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6513/): Privilege escalation in Puppet Enterprise and Puppet Agent (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2018-6514](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6514/): Privilege escalation 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-2018-6515 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-6515 is a high-severity code injection vulnerability in Puppet Agent, published on 11 Jun 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-6515 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Puppet Agent. 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-2018-6515/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6515/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-6515
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-6515
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-6515

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6515/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.