Ansible discloses sensitive information in traceback error message

CVE-2021-3620 → View on GitHub ↗ View on CVE.org ↗ View on NVD ↗

Description

Ansible is an IT automation system that handles configuration management, application deployment, cloud provisioning, ad-hoc task execution, network automation, and multi-node orchestration. 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 when Ansible receives an unexpected response from set_options. The highest threat from this vulnerability is confidentiality.

Basic information

Type
reviewed
Severity
medium
Advisory on GitHub
Open advisory ↗
Repository advisory
—
Source code
Browse source ↗
Published (advisory)
2022-03-04 00:00:17 UTC
Updated
2024-09-09 21:01:02 UTC
GitHub reviewed
2022-03-24 21:40:53 UTC
NVD published
2022-03-03 19:15:00 UTC

EPSS Score

Score Percentile
0.29% 52.51%

CVSS Scores

Base score Version Severity Vector
5.5 3.1 —
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.
6.8 4.0 —
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
Attacker needs local access on the target system.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and stable.
Attack requirements (AT:N)
No additional preconditions are required beyond normal reachability.
Privileges required (PR:L)
Low privileges are required.
User interaction (UI:N)
No user interaction is required.
Vulnerable system confidentiality impact (VC:H)
High confidentiality impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system integrity impact (VI:N)
No integrity impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system availability impact (VA:N)
No availability impact on the vulnerable system.
Subsequent system confidentiality impact (SC:N)
No confidentiality impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system integrity impact (SI:N)
No integrity impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system availability impact (SA:N)
No availability impact on subsequent systems.

Identifiers

Type Value
GHSA GHSA-4r65-35qq-ch8j ↗
CVE CVE-2021-3620 ↗

CWEs

CWE id Name
CWE-209 Generation of Error Message Containing Sensitive Information

Credits

  • jhutchings1 (analyst)

Affected packages (1)

Vulnerable version ranges and first patched releases as published by GitHub.

Ecosystem Package Vulnerable range First patched Vulnerable functions
pip ansible < 2.9.27 2.9.27 —

References

cvelogic Threat Intelligence