CVE-2021-3447 [Medium] | Security Vulnerability in Ansible

A flaw was found in several ansible modules, where parameters containing credentials, such as secrets, were being logged in plain-text on managed nodes, as well as being made visible on the controller node when run in verbose mode. These parameters were not protected by the no_log feature. An attacker can take advantage of this information to steal those credentials, provided when they have access to the log files containing them. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to data confidentiality. This flaw affects Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform in versions before 1.2.2 and Ansible Tower in versions before 3.8.2.

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2025-03-30	0.17%	0.07%	-0.10%
2	2025-03-29	0.07%	0.17%	+0.10%
3	2025-03-17	—	0.07%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2025-03-30

0.17%

0.07%

-0.10%

2025-03-29

0.07%

0.17%

+0.10%

2025-03-17

—

0.07%

—

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]

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]

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-3447

vendor	priority	summary	link
`debian`	not yet assigned	CVE-2021-3447 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-2021-3447
`redhat`	medium	—	https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-3447
`suse`	medium	—	https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-3447/
`ubuntu`	medium	CVE-2021-3447 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-2021-3447

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-3447

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
redhat	ansible	< 1.2.2	cpe:2.3:a:redhat:ansible::::::::
redhat	ansible_tower	< 3.8.2	cpe:2.3:a:redhat:ansible_tower::::::::
fedoraproject	fedora	32	cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:32:::::::*
fedoraproject	fedora	33	cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:33:::::::*
fedoraproject	fedora	34	cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:34:::::::*

References for CVE-2021-3447

URL	Tags
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1939349	Issue Tracking Vendor Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/12/msg00018.html
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/2MS4VPUYVLGSAKOX26IT52BSMEZRZ3KS/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/JBZ75MAMVQVZROPYHMRDQKPPVASP63DG/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/RUTGO4RS4ZXZSPBU2CHVPT75IAFVTTL3/

URL

CVE-2021-3447

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2021-3447

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-3447

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-3447

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-3447

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-3447

References for CVE-2021-3447