CVE-2021-20228

A flaw was found in the Ansible Engine 2.9.18, where sensitive info is not masked by default and is not protected by the no_log feature when using the sub-option feature of the basic.py module. This flaw allows an attacker to obtain sensitive information. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to confidentiality.

Published: 2021-04-29 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2021-20228 is rated Moderate Risk (59.3/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 2.04%). EPSS rose +1.80% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Review affected assets and schedule 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-2021-20228

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 0.24% 2.04% +1.80%
2 2026-04-21 0.14% 0.24% +0.11%
3 2025-11-21 — 0.14% —

Full EPSS history (19 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-20228

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/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: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:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]
5.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N 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:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 10.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-20228

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2021-20228

GHSA-5rrg-rr89-x9mv · Severity: high · Ecosystem: pip — Ansible Exposes Sensitive Information

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-20228

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2021-20228 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-2021-20228
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-20228
suse medium — https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-20228/
ubuntu medium CVE-2021-20228 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-2021-20228

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-20228

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
redhat ansible_engine 2.9.18 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:ansible_engine:2.9.18:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat ansible_automation_platform 1.2 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:ansible_automation_platform:1.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat ansible_engine 2.0 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:ansible_engine:2.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat ansible_engine 2.9 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:ansible_engine:2.9:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat ansible_tower 3.0 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:ansible_tower:3.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-20228

URL Tags
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1925002 Issue Tracking Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/73487 Patch Third Party Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2021/dsa-4950 Third Party Advisory
cvelogic Threat Intelligence