GHSA-8f4m-hccc-8qph CVE-2021-20191 PYSEC-2021-124

Insertion of Sensitive Information into Log File in ansible

Medium PyPI

Severity: 5.5 / 10; Medium · CVSS 3.1
Exploit chance (EPSS): 0.35%; Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Higher than 28.60% of scored vulnerabilities.
Known exploited: No; Not in CISA's catalog
Weakness: CWE-532 Insertion of Sensitive Information into Log File
Fix: 2.9.18rc1; Upgrade ansible to this version or later

Description

A flaw was found in ansible. Credentials, such as secrets, are being disclosed in console log by default and not protected by no_log feature when using those modules. An attacker can take advantage of this information to steal those credentials. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to data confidentiality.

Affected versions

PyPI

Package	Vulnerable	Fixed in
ansible	`>= 2.9.0a1, < 2.9.18rc1`	`2.9.18rc1`
ansible	`< 2.8.19rc1`	`2.8.19rc1`
ansible	`>= 2.10.0a1, < 2.10.7`	`2.10.7`
ansible	`< 2.8.19` `>= 2.9.0, < 2.9.18` `>= 2.10.0, < 2.10.7`	`2.8.19` `2.9.18` `2.10.7`

How to fix

Move to the fixed version or later with your package manager, update the lockfile, and run your tests. If the package only arrives through another dependency, upgrade that dependency first. If none of its releases pulls a fixed version yet, force the version with your package manager's override.

ansible PyPI → `2.9.18rc1`

pip

pip install --upgrade "ansible>=2.9.18rc1"

poetry

poetry add "ansible>=2.9.18rc1"

uv

uv add "ansible>=2.9.18rc1"

Severity breakdown

CVSS 3.1 5.5

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

Attack vector: Local
Attack complexity: Low
Privileges required: Low
User interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: None
Availability: None

Weakness

CWE-532: Insertion of Sensitive Information into Log File

The product writes sensitive information to a log file.

How to prevent it

Architecture and Design, Implementation: Consider seriously the sensitivity of the information written into log files. Do not write secrets into the log files.
Distribution: Remove debug log files before deploying the application into production.
Operation: Protect log files against unauthorized read/write.
Implementation: Adjust configurations appropriately when software is transitioned from a debug state to production.

References

Advisories

Packages

github.com/ansible/ansible

Timeline

May 26, 2021 Published
Sep 10, 2024 Last updated by the source
Oct 31, 2026 Latest EPSS score

Advisory	Severity	Why it's related
GHSA-8ggh-xwr9-3373 Ansible Community General Collection is vulnerable to exposure of sensitive information	Medium	Also affects ansible
GHSA-jpvw-p8pr-9g2x Ansible symlink attack vulnerability	Medium	Also affects ansible
GHSA-cpx3-93w7-457x Ansible leaks password to logs	High	Also affects ansible
GHSA-fh5v-5f35-2rv2 Insertion of Sensitive Information into Log File in ansible	Medium	Also affects ansible
GHSA-4r65-35qq-ch8j Ansible discloses sensitive information in traceback error message	Medium	Also affects ansible
GHSA-2pfh-q76x-gwvm Improper Input Validation and Command Injection in Ansible	High	Also affects ansible
PYSEC-2021-126 A flaw was found in Ansible if an ansible user sets ANSIBLE_ASYNC_DIR to a subdirectory of a world writable directory.	Not rated yet	Also affects ansible
GHSA-r6h7-5pq2-j77h Insufficiently random values in Ansible	Medium	Also affects ansible

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