CVE-2017-7481

Ansible before versions 2.3.1.0 and 2.4.0.0 fails to properly mark lookup-plugin results as unsafe. If an attacker could control the results of lookup() calls, they could inject Unicode strings to be parsed by the jinja2 templating system, resulting in code execution. By default, the jinja2 templating language is now marked as 'unsafe' and is not evaluated.

Published: 2018-07-19 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2017-7481 is rated High Risk (71.1/100): CVSS Critical severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 4.31%). High exploitation likelihood—assess exposure and prioritize remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2017-7481

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-04-21 3.51% 4.31% +0.81%
2 2026-04-13 1.92% 3.51% +1.58%
3 2026-02-02 — 1.92% —

Full EPSS history (20 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2017-7481

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
9.8 3.1 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 5.9 [email protected]
5.3 3.0 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 1.6 3.6 [email protected]
7.5 2.0 HIGH
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 10.0 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2017-7481

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2017-7481

GHSA-w578-j992-554x · Severity: critical · Ecosystem: pip — Ansible fails to properly mark lookup-plugin results as unsafe

OS Trackers for CVE-2017-7481

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2017-7481 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (ansible), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2017-7481
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-7481
suse medium CVE-2017-7481 severity moderate: SUSE including 13 source package names (ansible-10-10.6.0-1.1, ansible-11-11.11.0-1.1, …), 13 product×package rows across 6 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3-TERADATA, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.0, … (6 product lines)): Fixed 13. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-7481/
ubuntu low CVE-2017-7481 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (ansible), 20 status rows across 20 suites (artful, bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, trusty, upstream, xenial, yakkety, zesty): not-affected 15, ignored 3, released 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2017-7481

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2017-7481

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
redhat openshift_container_platform 3.3 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:openshift_container_platform:3.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat openshift_container_platform 3.4 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:openshift_container_platform:3.4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat openshift_container_platform 3.5 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:openshift_container_platform:3.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat openstack 10 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:openstack:10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat openstack 11 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:openstack:11:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat storage_console 2.0 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:storage_console:2.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat virtualization 4.1 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:virtualization:4.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat virtualization_manager 4.1 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:virtualization_manager:4.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat gluster_storage 3.2 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:gluster_storage:3.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat ansible_engine < 2.3.1.0 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:ansible_engine:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat ansible_engine >= 2.3.2.0, < 2.4.0.0 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:ansible_engine:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 16.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 18.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 19.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:19.04:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2017-7481

URL Tags
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/98492 Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017:1244 Vendor Advisory
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017:1334 Vendor Advisory
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017:1476 Vendor Advisory
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017:1499 Vendor Advisory
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017:1599 Vendor Advisory
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017:2524 Vendor Advisory
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2017-7481 Issue Tracking Patch Vendor Advisory
https://github.com/ansible/ansible/commit/ed56f51f185a1ffd7ea57130d260098686fcc7c2 Patch Third Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2021/01/msg00023.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4072-1/ Third Party Advisory
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