CVE-2023-4237 | Platform: ec2_key module prints out the private key directly to the standard output

A flaw was found in the Ansible Automation Platform. When creating a new keypair, the ec2_key module prints out the private key directly to the standard output. This flaw allows an attacker to fetch those keys from the log files, compromising the system's confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Published: 2023-10-04 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-4237 is rated Low Risk (34.5/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.24%). 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-2023-4237

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 0.07% 0.24% +0.17%
2 2025-03-30 0.16% 0.07% -0.10%
3 2025-03-29 — 0.16% —

Full EPSS history (5 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-4237

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.3 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H 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:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
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:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.3 5.9 [email protected]
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H 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:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.8 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-4237

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2023-4237

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-4237

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-4237 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-2023-4237
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-4237
suse medium CVE-2023-4237 severity moderate: SUSE including 3 source package names (ansible, ansible-doc, ansible1), 11 product×package rows across 7 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, SUSE Manager Client Tools for SLE 15, … (7 product lines)): Will Not Fix 6, Known Not Affected 5. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-4237/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-4237 medium priority: Ubuntu including 2 source packages (ansible, ansible-core), 24 status rows across 12 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): needs-triage 12, ignored 8, DNE 4. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-4237

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-4237

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
redhat ansible_automation_platform 2.0 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:ansible_automation_platform:2.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat ansible_collection — cpe:2.3:a:redhat:ansible_collection:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-4237

cvelogic Threat Intelligence