GHSA-pm48-cvv2-29q5 CVE-2019-14846 PYSEC-2019-4

Ansible Uses Plugins That Disclose Credentials

High PyPI

Severity: 0.0 / 10; High · CVSS 4.0
Exploit chance (EPSS): 0.51%; Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Higher than 43.77% of scored vulnerabilities.
Known exploited: No; Not in CISA's catalog
Weakness: CWE-117 Improper Output Neutralization for Logs; CWE-532 Insertion of Sensitive Information into Log File
Fix: 2.6.20; Upgrade ansible to this version or later

Description

Ansible, all ansible_engine-2.x versions and ansible_engine-3.x up to ansible_engine-3.5, was logging at the DEBUG level which lead to a disclosure of credentials if a plugin used a library that logged credentials at the DEBUG level. This flaw does not affect Ansible modules, as those are executed in a separate process.

Affected versions

PyPI

Package	Vulnerable	Fixed in
ansible	`< 2.6.20`	`2.6.20`
ansible	`>= 2.7.0a1, < 2.7.14`	`2.7.14`
ansible	`>= 2.8.0a1, < 2.8.6`	`2.8.6`
ansible	`< 2.6.20` `>= 2.7.0, < 2.7.14` `>= 2.8.0, < 2.8.6`	`2.6.20` `2.7.14` `2.8.6`

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 → `2.6.20`

pip

pip install --upgrade "ansible>=2.6.20"

poetry

poetry add "ansible>=2.6.20"

uv

uv add "ansible>=2.6.20"

Severity breakdown

CVSS 4.0 0.0

CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Attack vector: Local
Attack complexity: Low
Attack requirements: None
Privileges required: Low
User interaction: None
Confidentiality (vulnerable system): High
Integrity (vulnerable system): High
Availability (vulnerable system): High
Confidentiality (subsequent systems): None
Integrity (subsequent systems): None
Availability (subsequent systems): None

CVSS 3.1 7.8

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

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

Weakness

CWE-117: Improper Output Neutralization for Logs

The product constructs a log message from external input, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements when the message is written to a log file.

How to prevent it

Implementation: Assume all input is malicious. Use an "accept known good" input validation strategy, i.e., use a list of acceptable inputs that strictly conform to specifications. Reject any input that does not strictly conform to specifications, or transform it into something that does. When performing input validation, consider all potentially relevant properties, including length, type of input, the full range of acceptable values, missing or extra inputs, syntax, consistency across related fields, and conformance to business rules. As an example of business rule logic, "boat" may be syntactically valid because it only contains alphanumeric characters, but it is not valid if the input is only expected to contain colors such as "red" or "blue." Do not rely exclusively on looking for malicious or malformed inputs. This is likely to miss at least one undesirable input, especially if the code's environment changes. This can give attackers enough room to bypass the intended validation. However, denylists can be useful for detecting potential attacks or determining which inputs are so malformed that they should be rejected outright.
Implementation: Use and specify an output encoding that can be handled by the downstream component that is reading the output. Common encodings include ISO-8859-1, UTF-7, and UTF-8. When an encoding is not specified, a downstream component may choose a different encoding, either by assuming a default encoding or automatically inferring which encoding is being used, which can be erroneous. When the encodings are inconsistent, the downstream component might treat some character or byte sequences as special, even if they are not special in the original encoding. Attackers might then be able to exploit this discrepancy and conduct injection attacks; they even might be able to bypass protection mechanisms that assume the original encoding is also being used by the downstream component.
Implementation: Inputs should be decoded and canonicalized to the application's current internal representation before being validated (CWE-180). Make sure that the application does not decode the same input twice (CWE-174). Such errors could be used to bypass allowlist validation schemes by introducing dangerous inputs after they have been checked.

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

Oct 8, 2019 Published
Jun 10, 2026 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

Is this in your code?

MergeHarbor checks every repository's dependencies against this database, ranks what matters by exploitability and reachability, routes it to the owning team and opens the fix pull request.

Check your repos with MergeHarbor