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CVE-2012-6639· NVD / CVE Program· CNA redhat

An privilege elevation vulnerability exists in Cloud-init before 0.7.0 when requests to an untrusted system are submitted for EC2 instance d

An privilege elevation vulnerability exists in Cloud-init before 0.7.0 when requests to an untrusted system are submitted for EC2 instance data.

HighCVSS 8.8 · v3.1—No exploit Fix available
Published
Nov 25, 2019
Updated
Jun 16, 2026
EPSS
2.0% · 80th percentile
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JSON

Action score

36

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
35 / 40 · 8.8 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
1 / 30 · 2.0%

Affected systems

VendorProduct
canonicalcloud-init
debiandebian linux
suselinux enterprise server

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

  • canonical cloud-initbefore 0.7.0
  • debian debian linux10.0
  • debian debian linux8.0
  • debian debian linux9.0
  • suse linux enterprise server11

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (redhat). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

  • cloud-init cloud-init

    • before 0.7.0affected

Package-level exposure

OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.

EcosystemPackageAffected rangeFix
Debian:12cloud-initbefore 0.7.1-10.7.1-1

Same product

canonical: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2024-6174When a non-x86 platform is detected, cloud-init grants root access to a hardcoded url with a local IP address.
    35Monitor
  • CVE-2018-10896The default cloud-init configuration, in cloud-init 0.6.2 and newer, included "ssh_deletekeys: 0", disabling cloud-init's deletion of ssh ho
    28Monitor
  • CVE-2023-1786sensitive data exposure in cloud-init logs
    22Monitor
  • CVE-2022-2084sensitive data exposure in cloud-init logs
    22Monitor
  • CVE-2021-3429sensitive data exposure in cloud-init logs
    22Monitor
  • CVE-2020-8632In cloud-init through 19.4, rand_user_password in cloudinit/config/cc_set_passwords.py has a small default pwlen value, which makes it easie
    22Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

Product / packageFixed versionSource
debian:cloud-init0.7.1-1 · Debian:12Package registry (OSV)

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

EPSS, last 120 days

FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

No commit or PR link among the references.

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

No known public program.

Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).

Technical details

Attack conditions

  • Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it.
  • A low-privileged account is enough.
  • No user action is required.
  • No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality
high · data can be read
Integrity
high · data or configuration can be modified
Availability
high · the service can be disrupted
Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality impact
High
Integrity impact
High
Availability impact
High

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-269 · Improper Privilege Management

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

nvd-primary

Root cause

To simplify setup, a service account is granted broad, cluster-wide permissions. The principle of least privilege is skipped during installation.

The bug in code

The whole CWE-269 class

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

Vulnerable

yaml
kind: ClusterRolerules:  - apiGroups: ["*"]    resources: ["*"]    verbs: ["*"]

Fixed

yaml
kind: Rolemetadata:  namespace: lodos-systemrules:  - apiGroups: ["apps"]    resources: ["deployments"]    verbs: ["get", "list", "update"]

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

Noroxi analysis

No Noroxi analysis for this record yet

We don't hand-write analysis for all 385,000+ vulnerabilities; that wouldn't be honest. For notable, high-impact vulnerabilities our team writes the mechanism, detection and remediation steps.

We use this product, ask for help

Change log

  1. Fix✗ → ✓

For records you follow, these changes also arrive as notifications. →

References

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records