CVE-2021-3620

A flaw was found in Ansible Engine's ansible-connection module, where sensitive information such as the Ansible user credentials is disclosed by default in the traceback error message. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to confidentiality.

Published: 2022-03-03 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2021-3620 is rated Moderate Risk (40.4/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.29%). 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-2021-3620

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 2026-03-26 0.18% 0.29% +0.11%
2 2025-11-21 0.10% 0.18% +0.08%
3 2025-11-18 — 0.10% —

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-3620

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-2021-3620

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2021-3620

GHSA-4r65-35qq-ch8j · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: pip — Ansible discloses sensitive information in traceback error message

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-3620

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2021-3620 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 2 source packages (ansible, ansible-core), 9 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 9. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2021-3620
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-3620
suse medium — https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-3620/
ubuntu medium CVE-2021-3620 medium priority: Ubuntu including 3 source packages (ansible, ansible-base, ansible-core), 48 status rows across 16 suites (bionic, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 18, ignored 12, not-affected 11, released 3, needed 2, needs-triage 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-3620

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-3620

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
redhat ansible_automation_platform_early_access 2.0 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:ansible_automation_platform_early_access:2.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat ansible_engine < 2.9.27 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:ansible_engine:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat openstack 1 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:openstack:1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat openstack 16.1 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:openstack:16.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat virtualization 4.0 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:virtualization:4.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat virtualization_for_ibm_power_little_endian 4.0 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:virtualization_for_ibm_power_little_endian:4.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat virtualization_host 4.0 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:virtualization_host:4.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat virtualization_manager 4.4 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:virtualization_manager:4.4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_for_power_little_endian 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_for_power_little_endian:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-3620

cvelogic Threat Intelligence