CVE-2020-1740

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.

Published: 2020-03-16 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2020-1740 is rated Low Risk (27.8/100): CVSS Low severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.14%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

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-2020-1740

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 2026-05-30 0.04% 0.14% +0.11%
2 2025-11-21 0.08% 0.04% -0.04%
3 2025-11-18 — 0.08% —

Full EPSS history (14 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-1740

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
3.9 3.1 LOW
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 0.8 2.7 [email protected]
4.7 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
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:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 1.0 3.6 [email protected]
1.9 2.0 LOW
AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 3.4 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-1740

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2020-1740

GHSA-vcg8-98q8-g7mj · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: pip — Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor and Insecure Temporary File in Ansible

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-1740

vendor priority summary link
alpine medium CVE-2020-1740: 2 source package rows (ansible, ansible-base); 5 state rows across 5 repos (3.10-main, 3.11-main, 3.12-main, edge-community, edge-main); fixed 5, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2020-1740
debian not yet assigned CVE-2020-1740 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-2020-1740
gentoo normal CVE-2020-1740: 1 GLSA(s) (202006-11), 1 atom(s) (app-admin/ansible); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2020-1740
redhat low — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-1740
suse low CVE-2020-1740 severity low: SUSE including 115 source package names (ansible-10-10.6.0-1.1, ansible-11-11.11.0-1.1, …), 246 product×package rows across 8 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3-TERADATA, … (8 product lines)): Fixed 246. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-1740/
ubuntu medium CVE-2020-1740 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (ansible), 17 status rows across 17 suites (bionic, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 12, needed 3, ignored 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-1740

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-1740

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
redhat ansible < 2.7.17 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:ansible:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat ansible >= 2.8.0, < 2.8.11 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:ansible:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat ansible >= 2.9.0, < 2.9.7 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:ansible:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat ansible_tower <= 3.3.4 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:ansible_tower:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat ansible_tower >= 3.3.5, <= 3.4.5 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:ansible_tower:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat ansible_tower >= 3.5.0, <= 3.5.5 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:ansible_tower:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat ansible_tower >= 3.6.0, <= 3.6.3 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:ansible_tower:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat cloudforms_management_engine 5.0 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:cloudforms_management_engine:5.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat openstack 13 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:openstack:13:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 30 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:30:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 31 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:31:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 32 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:32:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-1740

URL Tags
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2020-1740 Issue Tracking Vendor Advisory
https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/67798 Issue Tracking Third Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/05/msg00005.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/DKPA4KC3OJSUFASUYMG66HKJE7ADNGFW/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/MRRYUU5ZBLPBXCYG6CFP35D64NP2UB2S/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/WQVOQD4VAIXXTVQAJKTN7NUGTJFE2PCB/
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202006-11 Third Party Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2021/dsa-4950 Third Party Advisory
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