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Ubuntu 11.04 USN-1223-1 Critical Puppet Threat: File Overwrite

ubuntu
Calendar Grey October 1, 2011
Scroller Ubuntu
Ubuntu Security Notice USN-1223-1 resolves critical issues within Puppet, impacting multiple iterations, and outlines the required patches for resolution.
Puppet could be made to overwrite files and run programs with administrator privileges.

Summary

Puppet could be made to overwrite files and run programs with administrator

privileges.

Software Description:

- puppet: Centralized configuration management

Details:

It was discovered that Puppet unsafely opened files when the k5login type

is used to manage files. A local attacker could exploit this to overwrite

arbitrary files which could be used to escalate privileges. (CVE-2011-3869)

Ricky Zhou discovered that Puppet did not drop privileges when creating

SSH authorized_keys files. A local attacker could exploit this to overwrite

arbitrary files as root. (CVE-2011-3870)

It was discovered that Puppet used a predictable filename when using the

--edit resource. A local attacker could exploit this to edit arbitrary

files or run arbitrary code as the user invoking the program, typically

root. (CVE-2011-3871)

Topics%20covered

Topics Covered

security advisory privilege escalation file overwrite ubuntu puppet

Update Instructions

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following
package versions:

Ubuntu 11.04:
  puppet-common                   2.6.4-2ubuntu2.3

Ubuntu 10.10:
  puppet-common                   2.6.1-0ubuntu2.2

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS:
  puppet-common                   0.25.4-2ubuntu6.3

In general, a standard system update will make all the necessary changes.

References

https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-1223-1

CVE-2011-3869, CVE-2011-3870, CVE-2011-3871

Severity
critical
Lowest
Low
Medium
High
Critical

September 30, 2011

Topics%20covered

Topics Covered

security advisory privilege escalation file overwrite ubuntu puppet

Package Information

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/puppet/2.6.4-2ubuntu2.3
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/puppet/2.6.1-0ubuntu2.2
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/puppet/0.25.4-2ubuntu6.3

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