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Medium

Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor and Insecure Temporary File in Ansible

  • Disclosed: 16.03.2020
  • Updated: 11.10.2026 11:19

A flaw was found in Ansible Engine when using Ansible Vault for editing encrypted files. When a user executes "ansible-vault edit", another user on the same computer can read the old and new secret, as it is created in a temporary file with mkstemp and the returned file descriptor is closed and the method write_data is called to write the existing secret in the file. This method will delete the file before recreating it insecurely. All versions in 2.7.x, 2.8.x and 2.9.x branches are believed to be vulnerable.

Affected software

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PlatformPackageVulnerable versionsFixed in
Python (PyPI) ansible < 2.7.17, >= 2.8.0a1, < 2.8.11, >= 2.9.0a1, < 2.9.7 2.7.17, 2.8.11, 2.9.7

References

CVSS score 4.7/10
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Weakness (CWE)
CWE-200, CWE-377
Platform
Python (PyPI)
Package
ansible
Disclosed
16.03.2020
Updated
11.10.2026 11:19

Sources and licenses

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - PYSEC-2020-12 - PyPA Advisory Database; CC BY 4.0

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-vcg8-98q8-g7mj - CC BY 4.0

Vulnerability history: ansible

All published vulnerabilities of this package (Python (PyPI)), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.

All (68) in the archive
Total entries
68
First → latest
09.2013 12.2025
Without a fix
2
Exploited in attacks
0

Severity breakdown

  • Critical 9
  • High 24
  • Medium 27
  • Low 6
  • Unrated 2

Disclosures per year

earlier: 4

Severity:
  1. Ansible leaks password to logs
    High · 7.5 CVE-2022-3697 >= 2.5.0, < 7.0.0 7.0.0
  2. Improper Input Validation and Command Injection in Ansible
    High · 7.1 CVE-2021-3583 < 2.9.23rc1, >= 2.10.0a1, < 2.10.11rc1, >= 2.11.0a1, < 2.11.2rc1 2.9.23rc1, 2.10.11rc1, 2.11.2rc1
  3. Insertion of Sensitive Information into Log File in ansible
    High · 5.5 CVE-2021-20178 < 2.9.18 2.9.18
  4. Ansible Exposes Sensitive Information
    High · 7.5 CVE-2021-20228 >= 2.10.0a1, < 2.10.6rc1, >= 2.9.0a1, < 2.9.18rc1, < 2.8.19rc1 2.10.6rc1, 2.9.18rc1, 2.8.19rc1
  5. OS Command Injection and Improper Input Validation in ansible
    High · 7.3 CVE-2019-14904 < 2.7.16, >= 2.8.0a1, < 2.8.8, >= 2.9.0a1, < 2.9.3 2.7.16, 2.8.8, 2.9.3
  6. Externally Controlled Reference to a Resource in Another Sphere, Improper Input Validation, and External Control of File Name or Path in Ansible
    High · 5.6 CVE-2019-14905 >= 2.7.0a1, < 2.7.16, >= 2.8.0a1, < 2.8.8, >= 2.9.0a1, < 2.9.3 2.7.16, 2.8.8, 2.9.3
  7. Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor and Insecure Temporary File in Ansible this entry
    Medium · 4.7 CVE-2020-1740 < 2.7.17, >= 2.8.0a1, < 2.8.11, >= 2.9.0a1, < 2.9.7 2.7.17, 2.8.11, 2.9.7
  8. Path Traversal in Ansible
    High · 7.8 CVE-2020-1737 >= 2.8.0a1, < 2.8.9, >= 2.9.0a1, < 2.9.6, < 2.7.17 2.8.9, 2.9.6, 2.7.17
  9. OS Command Injection in ansible
    High · 7.4 CVE-2020-1734 >= 2.10.0a1, < 2.10.0rc1, >= 2.9.0a1, < 2.9.11, < 2.8.13 2.10.0rc1, 2.9.11, 2.8.13
  10. The safe_eval function in Ansible before 1.5.4 does not properly restrict the code subset, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via crafted instructions.
    Critical · 9.8 CVE-2014-4657 < 1.5.4 1.5.4
  11. The safe_eval function in Ansible before 1.6.4 does not properly restrict the code subset, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via crafted instructions. NOTE: this vulnerability ex
    Critical · 9.8 CVE-2014-4678 < 1.6.4 1.6.4
  12. Multiple argument injection vulnerabilities in Ansible before 1.6.7 allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code by leveraging access to an Ansible managed host and providing a crafted fact, as de
    Critical · 9.8 CVE-2014-4967 < 1.6.7 1.6.7
  13. Ansible before 1.6.7 does not prevent inventory data with "{{" and "lookup" substrings, and does not prevent remote data with "{{" substrings, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code v
    Critical · 9.8 CVE-2014-4966 < 1.6.7 1.6.7
  14. Ansible prior to 1.5.4 mishandles the evaluation of some strings.
    High · 7.5 CVE-2014-2686 < 1.5.4 1.5.4
  15. ansible before versions 2.8.6, 2.7.14, 2.6.20 is vulnerable to a None
    High · 6.5 CVE-2019-14856 >= 2.6.0, < 2.6.20, >= 2.7.0, < 2.7.14, >= 2.8.0, < 2.8.6 2.6.20, 2.7.14, 2.8.6
  16. Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor in ansible
    High · 6.5 CVE-2019-10217 >= 2.8.0a1, < 2.8.4 2.8.4
  17. ansible-playbook -k and ansible cli tools, all versions 2.8.x before 2.8.4, all 2.7.x before 2.7.13 and all 2.6.x before 2.6.19, prompt passwords by expanding them from templates as they could contain
    High · 6.5 CVE-2019-10206 >= 2.6.0, < 2.6.19, >= 2.7.0, < 2.7.13, >= 2.8.0, < 2.8.4 2.6.19, 2.7.13, 2.8.4
  18. In Ansible, all Ansible Engine versions up to ansible-engine 2.8.5, ansible-engine 2.7.13, ansible-engine 2.6.19, were logging at the DEBUG level which lead to a disclosure of credentials if a plugin
    High · 7.8 CVE-2019-14846 < 2.6.20, >= 2.7.0, < 2.7.14, >= 2.8.0, < 2.8.6 2.6.20, 2.7.14, 2.8.6
  19. ansible before versions 2.5.14, 2.6.11, 2.7.5 is vulnerable to a information disclosure flaw in vvv+ mode with no_log on that can lead to leakage of sensible data.
    High · 5.3 CVE-2018-16876 >= 2.5.0, < 2.5.14, >= 2.6.0, < 2.6.11, >= 2.7.0, < 2.7.5 2.5.14, 2.6.11, 2.7.5
  20. Ansible "User" module leaks any data which is passed on as a parameter to ssh-keygen. This could lean in undesirable situations such as passphrases credentials passed as a parameter for the ssh-keygen
    High · 7.8 CVE-2018-16837 >= 2.7, < 2.7.1, >= 2.6, < 2.6.7, < 2.5.11 2.7.1, 2.6.7, 2.5.11
Show more (14) Showing 20 of 34

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