[Bug]: Windows Agent 8.23.1 test fails in certain directories

[sarhaynes]

Is this a critical security issue?

• This is not a security issue.

Describe the Bug

When we attempt to run puppet agent --test from directories that are not under the \ProgramData\PuppetLabs... subdirectories the command fails attempting to convert the underlying directory from directory to a file. See attached screenshot. This issues occurs before the agent contacts the server and executes the downloaded manifests.
It was also noted that if we do not 'cd' to the directory using the proper case the call will also fail. This seems to indicate that puppet is not being case-insensitive in Windows.

Expected Behavior

The puppet agent test should have run and should not attempt to make changes to the underlying directory that the command was called from.

Steps to Reproduce

Using an Administrative PowerShell from \Windows\System32 execute puppet agent --test.
The command will fail (NOTE: This was also tested in the current logged in Admin's Home Directory with no success).
Change to \ProgramData\PuppetLabs\code\ and execute the command and it will execute normally.

Environment

Version Windows Agent 8.23.1
Platform Windows 11 Pro 24H2, Windows Server 2022 DC

Additional Context

No response

Relevant log output

See attached screenshot.

[nmburgan]

I'm not able to reproduce this. Can you run with the --debug flag? My guess is you have one of your Puppet settings that expects a file (e.g. hiera_config) is set to C:\Windows\System32 somehow,

[sarhaynes]

I'm not able to reproduce this. Can you run with the --debug flag? My guess is you have one of your Puppet settings that expects a file (e.g. hiera_config) is set to C:\Windows\System32 somehow,

It doesn't matter what directory I'm in. If I'm in C:\Users<myaccount>\ I get the same error. I will attach a debug output once I sanitize it. There is nothing in the hiera.yaml file.
Further research finds that it is caused by the line:
ssl_trust_store = in the puppet.conf file. This was from an example in the puppet module that we followed. If there is no file listed it should just ignore the setting, but it seems to cause this issue to occur.

[nmburgan]

Tried that, but still didn't result in the error for me. But if you can get a debug log, I think it may shed some more light.