Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
A legacy Puppet MCollective flaw allowed unsafe YAML sent from agents to be deserialized by the server. In affected deployments, this could let an attacker execute code on the MCollective server, making it important for any remaining Puppet Enterprise or MCollective environments.
Executive priority
Prioritize remediation if MCollective remains part of infrastructure automation. A successful attack could compromise a central management service, but urgency depends on whether affected legacy versions are still deployed and reachable in the environment.
Technical view
MCollective versions before 2.10.4 did not use YAML.safe_load when handling YAML from agents. The published fix is to call YAML.safe_load on input. Puppet noted its supplied plugins were tested, but third-party plugins might depend on the unsafe behavior.
Likely exposure
Exposure is likely limited to legacy Puppet Enterprise, Puppet Agent, or MCollective installations matching the listed affected versions. Internet exposure is not established in the source bundle; the key concern is management-plane trust between MCollective servers and agents.
Exploitation context
The bundle does not cite active exploitation, and CISA KEV status is false. The issue is still serious because arbitrary code execution on an automation server can affect managed infrastructure if an attacker can influence agent-provided YAML.
Researcher notes
The source bundle provides affected versions and the unsafe YAML deserialization cause, but no CVSS, CWE, exploit details, or attack preconditions. Treat impact as high due potential server-side code execution, while documenting assumptions during exposure analysis.
Mitigation direction
- Upgrade MCollective to 2.10.4 or later where still deployed.
- Move Puppet Enterprise and Puppet Agent to vendor-fixed supported versions.
- Review Puppet guidance for the exact product version path.
- Test third-party MCollective plugins for safe_load compatibility before production rollout.
- Apply Gentoo security updates if using Gentoo-packaged Puppet components.
Validation and detection
- Inventory Puppet Enterprise, Puppet Agent, and MCollective versions.
- Confirm no MCollective version earlier than 2.10.4 remains in service.
- Identify third-party MCollective plugins in production.
- Verify plugin testing covers YAML handling changes.
- Check change records for completed Puppet or Gentoo security updates.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
Execution behavior lookup
The CVE wording references code or command execution, so execution technique review may help defensive triage. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2017-2292 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Unknown
- CVSS
- Not scored
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS and timeline data
No CVSS vectors or timeline events were available in the normalized CVE source material.
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://puppet.com/security/cve/cve-2017-2292CVE reference · x_refsource_CONFIRM
- GLSA-201709-01CVE reference · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_GENTOO
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.