CVE-2017-2290
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedOn Windows installations of the mcollective-puppet-agent plugin, version 1.12.0, a non-administrator user can create an executable that will be executed with administrator privileges on the next "mco puppet" run. Puppet Enterprise users are not affected. This is resolved in mcollective-puppet-agent 1.12.1.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceA privilege escalation vulnerability in mcollective-puppet-agent version 1.12.0 on Windows allows non-administrator users to create a malicious executable that executes with administrator privileges when the 'mco puppet' command is run. This occurs due to improper privilege handling during the plugin's execution flow.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data= 1.12.0CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Verify mcollective-puppet-agent is installed on WindowsRun 'choco list --local-only mcollective-puppet-agent' or check the Puppet agent modules directory (typically C:\ProgramData\PuppetLabs\mcollective\etc\plugins) for the puppet agent plugin filesAffected if mcollective-puppet-agent is installed on a Windows system
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Determine installed version of mcollective-puppet-agentRun 'choco list --local-only mcollective-puppet-agent' to see the exact version, or check metadata in the plugin files located in the mcollective lib directoryAffected if The installed version is exactly 1.12.0
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Confirm Windows environmentRun 'systeminfo | findstr /B /C:OS' or check the OS environment variable '%OS%' equals 'Windows_NT'Affected if The system is running Windows (the vulnerability only affects Windows hosts)
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Check current user privilege levelRun 'whoami /groups | findstr /i admin' or check if the current user is a member of the Administrators groupAffected if The current user is a non-administrator user (the vulnerability allows privilege escalation FROM non-admin TO admin)
You are affected if mcollective-puppet-agent version 1.12.0 is installed on Windows and you are running as a non-administrator user who can execute the 'mco puppet' command.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade mcollective-puppet-agent to version 1.12.1 or later. Puppet Enterprise users are not affected.
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- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-2290 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2017-2290 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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