CVE-2021-20178

A flaw was found in ansible module where credentials are disclosed in the console log by default and not protected by the security feature when using the bitbucket_pipeline_variable module. This flaw allows an attacker to steal bitbucket_pipeline credentials. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to confidentiality.

Published: 2021-05-26 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2021-20178 is rated Low Risk (31.2/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.34%). 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-2021-20178

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 2026-06-15 0.03% 0.34% +0.30%
2 2025-11-21 0.08% 0.03% -0.04%
3 2025-11-18 — 0.08% —

Full EPSS history (12 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-20178

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/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:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
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.
 1.8 3.6 [email protected]
2.1 2.0 LOW
AV:L/AC:L/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:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
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.
 3.9 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-20178

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2021-20178

GHSA-wv5p-gmmv-wh9v · Severity: high · Ecosystem: pip — Insertion of Sensitive Information into Log File in ansible

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-20178

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2021-20178: 1 source package rows (ansible); 1 state rows across 1 repos (3.10-main); fixed 0, open 1. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2021-20178
debian not yet assigned CVE-2021-20178 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-2021-20178
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-20178
suse medium CVE-2021-20178 severity moderate: SUSE including 20 source package names (ansible, ansible-10-10.6.0-1.1, …), 42 product×package rows across 18 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Open Buildservice Development Tools 15 SP5, … (18 product lines)): Fixed 38, Known Not Affected 4. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-20178/
ubuntu medium CVE-2021-20178 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (ansible), 16 status rows across 16 suites (bionic, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): ignored 8, needs-triage 8. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-20178

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-20178

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
redhat ansible < 2.9.18 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:ansible:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat ansible_tower 3.0 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:ansible_tower:3.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 32 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:32:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 33 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:33:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-20178

cvelogic Threat Intelligence