CVE-2021-20191

A flaw was found in ansible. Credentials, such as secrets, are being disclosed in console log by default and not protected by no_log feature when using those modules. An attacker can take advantage of this information to steal those credentials. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to data confidentiality. Versions before ansible 2.9.18 are affected.

Published: 2021-05-26 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2021-20191 is rated Low Risk (24.5/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.03%). 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-2021-20191

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 2025-11-21 0.06% 0.03% -0.04%
2 2025-11-18 0.03% 0.06% +0.03%
3 2025-03-30 — 0.03% —

Full EPSS history (9 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-20191

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-2021-20191

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2021-20191

GHSA-8f4m-hccc-8qph · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: pip — Insertion of Sensitive Information into Log File in ansible

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-20191

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2021-20191: 1 source package rows (ansible); 14 state rows across 11 repos (3.10-main, 3.11-main, 3.12-main, 3.17-community, 3.18-community, 3.19-community, 3.20-community, 3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community, edge-main); fixed 11, open 3. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2021-20191
debian not yet assigned CVE-2021-20191 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-2021-20191
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-20191
suse medium — https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-20191/
ubuntu medium CVE-2021-20191 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-2021-20191

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-20191

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
oracle virtualization 4.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:virtualization:4.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat ansible < 2.8.19 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:ansible:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat ansible >= 2.9.0, < 2.9.18 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:ansible:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat ansible >= 2.10.0, < 2.10.7 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:ansible:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat ansible_tower 3.0 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:ansible_tower:3.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat cisco_nx-os_collection < 1.4.0 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:cisco_nx-os_collection:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat community_general_collection < 1.3.6 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:community_general_collection:*:*:*:*:*:ansible:*:*
redhat community_general_collection >= 2.0.0, < 2.0.1 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:community_general_collection:*:*:*:*:*:ansible:*:*
redhat community_network_collection < 1.3.2 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:community_network_collection:*:*:*:*:*:ansible:*:*
redhat community_network_collection >= 2.0.0, < 2.0.1 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:community_network_collection:*:*:*:*:*:ansible:*:*
redhat docker_community_collection < 1.2.2 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:docker_community_collection:*:*:*:*:*:ansible:*:*
redhat google_cloud_platform_ansible_collection 1.0.2 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:google_cloud_platform_ansible_collection:1.0.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-20191

cvelogic Threat Intelligence