Ansible "User" module leaks any data which is passed on as a parameter to ssh-keygen. This could lean in undesirable situations such as passphrases credentials passed as a parameter for the ssh-keygen executable. Showing those credentials in clear text form for every user which have access just to the process list.

The remote SUSE Linux SUSE15 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the openSUSE-SU-2022:0081-1 advisory.

  - A flaw was found in ansible. ansible.cfg is read from the current working directory which can be altered     to make it point to a plugin or a module path under the control of an attacker, thus allowing the attacker     to execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2018-10875)

  - Ansible User module leaks any data which is passed on as a parameter to ssh-keygen. This could lean in     undesirable situations such as passphrases credentials passed as a parameter for the ssh-keygen     executable. Showing those credentials in clear text form for every user which have access just to the     process list. (CVE-2018-16837)

  - A flaw was discovered in the way Ansible templating was implemented in versions before 2.6.18, 2.7.12 and     2.8.2, causing the possibility of information disclosure through unexpected variable substitution. By     taking advantage of unintended variable substitution the content of any variable may be disclosed.
    (CVE-2019-10156)

  - In Ansible, all Ansible Engine versions up to ansible-engine 2.8.5, ansible-engine 2.7.13, ansible-engine     2.6.19, were 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. (CVE-2019-14846)

  - A flaw was found in the solaris_zone module from the Ansible Community modules. When setting the name for     the zone on the Solaris host, the zone name is checked by listing the process with the 'ps' bare command     on the remote machine. An attacker could take advantage of this flaw by crafting the name of the zone and     executing arbitrary commands in the remote host. Ansible Engine 2.7.15, 2.8.7, and 2.9.2 as well as     previous versions are affected. (CVE-2019-14904)

  - A vulnerability was found in Ansible Engine versions 2.9.x before 2.9.3, 2.8.x before 2.8.8, 2.7.x before     2.7.16 and earlier, where in Ansible's nxos_file_copy module can be used to copy files to a flash or     bootflash on NXOS devices. Malicious code could craft the filename parameter to perform OS command     injections. This could result in a loss of confidentiality of the system among other issues.
    (CVE-2019-14905)

  - A flaw was found in Ansible Engine, all versions 2.7.x, 2.8.x and 2.9.x prior to 2.7.17, 2.8.9 and 2.9.6     respectively, when using ansible_facts as a subkey of itself and promoting it to a variable when inject is     enabled, overwriting the ansible_facts after the clean. An attacker could take advantage of this by     altering the ansible_facts, such as ansible_hosts, users and any other key data which would lead into     privilege escalation or code injection. (CVE-2020-10684)

  - A flaw was found in Ansible Engine affecting Ansible Engine versions 2.7.x before 2.7.17 and 2.8.x before     2.8.11 and 2.9.x before 2.9.7 as well as Ansible Tower before and including versions 3.4.5 and 3.5.5 and     3.6.3 when using modules which decrypts vault files such as assemble, script, unarchive, win_copy, aws_s3     or copy modules. The temporary directory is created in /tmp leaves the s ts unencrypted. On Operating     Systems which /tmp is not a tmpfs but part of the root partition, the directory is only cleared on boot     and the decryp emains when the host is switched off. The system will be vulnerable when the system is not     running. So decrypted data must be cleared as soon as possible and the data which normally is encrypted     ble. (CVE-2020-10685)

  - An archive traversal flaw was found in all ansible-engine versions 2.9.x prior to 2.9.7, when running     ansible-galaxy collection install. When extracting a collection .tar.gz file, the directory is created     without sanitizing the filename. An attacker could take advantage to overwrite any file within the system.
    (CVE-2020-10691)

  - A flaw was found in the use of insufficiently random values in Ansible. Two random password lookups of the     same length generate the equal value as the template caching action for the same file since no re-     evaluation happens. The highest threat from this vulnerability would be that all passwords are exposed at     once for the file. This flaw affects Ansible Engine versions before 2.9.6. (CVE-2020-10729)

  - An Improper Output Neutralization for Logs flaw was found in Ansible when using the uri module, where     sensitive data is exposed to content and json output. This flaw allows an attacker to access the logs or     outputs of performed tasks to read keys used in playbooks from other users within the uri module. The     highest threat from this vulnerability is to data confidentiality. (CVE-2020-14330)

  - A flaw was found in the Ansible Engine when using module_args. Tasks executed with check mode (--check-     mode) do not properly neutralize sensitive data exposed in the event data. This flaw allows unauthorized     users to read this data. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to confidentiality.
    (CVE-2020-14332)

  - A race condition flaw was found in Ansible Engine 2.7.17 and prior, 2.8.9 and prior, 2.9.6 and prior when     running a playbook with an unprivileged become user. When Ansible needs to run a module with become user,     the temporary directory is created in /var/tmp. This directory is created with umask 77 && mkdir -p     <dir>; this operation does not fail if the directory already exists and is owned by another user. An     attacker could take advantage to gain control of the become user as the target directory can be retrieved     by iterating '/proc/<pid>/cmdline'. (CVE-2020-1733)

  - A flaw was found in the pipe lookup plugin of ansible. Arbitrary commands can be run, when the pipe lookup     plugin uses subprocess.Popen() with shell=True, by overwriting ansible facts and the variable is not     escaped by quote plugin. An attacker could take advantage and run arbitrary commands by overwriting the     ansible facts. (CVE-2020-1734)

  - A flaw was found in the Ansible Engine when the fetch module is used. An attacker could intercept the     module, inject a new path, and then choose a new destination path on the controller node. All versions in     2.7.x, 2.8.x and 2.9.x branches are believed to be vulnerable. (CVE-2020-1735)

  - A flaw was found in Ansible Engine when a file is moved using atomic_move primitive as the file mode     cannot be specified. This sets the destination files world-readable if the destination file does not exist     and if the file exists, the file could be changed to have less restrictive permissions before the move.
    This could lead to the disclosure of sensitive data. All versions in 2.7.x, 2.8.x and 2.9.x branches are     believed to be vulnerable. (CVE-2020-1736)

  - A flaw was found in Ansible 2.7.17 and prior, 2.8.9 and prior, and 2.9.6 and prior when using the Extract-     Zip function from the win_unzip module as the extracted file(s) are not checked if they belong to the     destination folder. An attacker could take advantage of this flaw by crafting an archive anywhere in the     file system, using a path traversal. This issue is fixed in 2.10. (CVE-2020-1737)

  - A flaw was found in Ansible Engine when the module package or service is used and the parameter 'use' is     not specified. If a previous task is executed with a malicious user, the module sent can be selected by     the attacker using the ansible facts file. All versions in 2.7.x, 2.8.x and 2.9.x branches are believed to     be vulnerable. (CVE-2020-1738)

  - A flaw was found in Ansible 2.7.16 and prior, 2.8.8 and prior, and 2.9.5 and prior when a password is set     with the argument password of svn module, it is used on svn command line, disclosing to other users     within the same node. An attacker could take advantage by reading the cmdline file from that particular     PID on the procfs. (CVE-2020-1739)

  - A flaw was found in Ansible Engine when using Ansible Vault for editing encrypted files. When a user     executes ansible-vault edit, another user on the same computer can read the old and new secret, as it is     created in a temporary file with mkstemp and the returned file descriptor is closed and the method     write_data is called to write the existing secret in the file. This method will delete the file before     recreating it insecurely. All versions in 2.7.x, 2.8.x and 2.9.x branches are believed to be vulnerable.
    (CVE-2020-1740)

  - A flaw was found in the Ansible Engine affecting Ansible Engine versions 2.7.x before 2.7.17 and 2.8.x     before 2.8.11 and 2.9.x before 2.9.7 as well as Ansible Tower before and including versions 3.4.5 and     3.5.5 and 3.6.3 when the ldap_attr and ldap_entry community modules are used. The issue discloses the LDAP     bind password to stdout or a log file if a playbook task is written using the bind_pw in the parameters     field. The highest threat from this vulnerability is data confidentiality. (CVE-2020-1746)

  - A security flaw was found in Ansible Engine, all Ansible 2.7.x versions prior to 2.7.17, all Ansible 2.8.x     versions prior to 2.8.11 and all Ansible 2.9.x versions prior to 2.9.7, when managing kubernetes using the     k8s module. Sensitive parameters such as passwords and tokens are passed to kubectl from the command line,     not using an environment variable or an input configuration file. This will disclose passwords and tokens     from process list and no_log directive from debug module would not have any effect making these secrets     being disclosed on stdout and log files. (CVE-2020-1753)

  - A flaw was found in ansible module where credentials are disclosed in the console log by default and not     protected by the security feature when using the bitbucket_pipeline_variable module. This flaw allows an     attacker to steal bitbucket_pipeline credentials. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to     confidentiality. (CVE-2021-20178, CVE-2021-20180)

  - 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. Versions before ansible 2.9.18 are affected. (CVE-2021-20191)

  - A flaw was found in the Ansible Engine 2.9.18, where sensitive info is not masked by default and is not     protected by the no_log feature when using the sub-option feature of the basic.py module. This flaw allows     an attacker to obtain sensitive information. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to     confidentiality. (CVE-2021-20228)

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

It was discovered that Ansible failed to properly handle sensitive information. A local attacker could use those vulnerabilities to extract them. (CVE-2017-7481) (CVE-2018-10855) (CVE-2018-16837) (CVE-2018-16876) (CVE-2019-10156)

It was discovered that Ansible could load configuration files from the current working directory containing crafted commands. An attacker could run arbitrary code as result. (CVE-2018-10874) (CVE-2018-10875)

It was discovered that Ansible fetch module had a path traversal vulnerability. A local attacker could copy and overwrite files outside of the specified destination. (CVE-2019-3828).

Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

This update for ansible fixes the following issues :

Ansible was updated to version 2.8.1 :

Full changelog is at /usr/share/doc/packages/ansible/changelogs/

  - Bugfixes

  - ACI - DO not encode query_string

  - ACI modules - Fix non-signature authentication

  - Add missing directory provided via ``--playbook-dir`` to     adjacent collection loading

  - Fix 'Interface not found' errors when using     eos_l2_interface with non-existent interfaces configured

  - Fix cannot get credential when `source_auth` set to     `credential_file`.

  - Fix netconf_config backup string issue

  - Fix privilege escalation support for the docker     connection plugin when credentials need to be supplied     (e.g. sudo with password).

  - Fix vyos cli prompt inspection

  - Fixed loading namespaced documentation fragments from     collections.

  - Fixing bug came up after running cnos_vrf module against     coverity.

  - Properly handle data importer failures on PVC creation,     instead of timing out.

  - To fix the ios static route TC failure in CI

  - To fix the nios member module params

  - To fix the nios_zone module idempotency failure

  - add terminal initial prompt for initial connection

  - allow include_role to work with ansible command

  - allow python_requirements_facts to report on     dependencies containing dashes

  - asa_config fix

  - azure_rm_roledefinition - fix a small error in build     scope.

  - azure_rm_virtualnetworkpeering - fix cross subscriptions     virtual network peering.

  - cgroup_perf_recap - When not using file_per_task, make     sure we don't prematurely close the perf files

  - display underlying error when reporting an invalid     ``tasks:`` block.

  - dnf - fix wildcard matching for state: absent

  - docker connection plugin - accept version ``dev`` as     'newest version' and print warning.

  - docker_container - ``oom_killer`` and ``oom_score_adj``     options are available since docker-py 1.8.0, not 2.0.0     as assumed by the version check.

  - docker_container - fix network creation when     ``networks_cli_compatible`` is enabled.

  - docker_container - use docker API's ``restart`` instead     of ``stop``/``start`` to restart a container.

  - docker_image - if ``build`` was not specified, the wrong     default for ``build.rm`` is used.

  - docker_image - if ``nocache`` set to ``yes`` but not     ``build.nocache``, the module failed.

  - docker_image - module failed when ``source: build`` was     set but ``build.path`` options not specified.

  - docker_network module - fix idempotency when using     ``aux_addresses`` in ``ipam_config``.

  - ec2_instance - make Name tag idempotent

  - eos: don't fail modules without become set, instead show     message and continue

  - eos_config: check for session support when asked to     'diff_against: session'

  - eos_eapi: fix idempotency issues when vrf was     unspecified.

  - fix bugs for ce - more info see

  - fix incorrect uses of to_native that should be to_text     instead.

  - hcloud_volume - Fix idempotency when attaching a server     to a volume.

  - ibm_storage - Added a check for null fields in     ibm_storage utils module.

  - include_tasks - whitelist ``listen`` as a valid keyword

  - k8s - resource updates applied with force work correctly     now

  - keep results subset also when not no_log.

  - meraki_switchport - improve reliability with native VLAN     functionality.

  - netapp_e_iscsi_target - fix netapp_e_iscsi_target chap     secret size and clearing functionality

  - netapp_e_volumes - fix workload profileId indexing when     no previous workload tags exist on the storage array.

  - nxos_acl some platforms/versions raise when no ACLs are     present

  - nxos_facts fix     <https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/57009>

  - nxos_file_copy fix passwordless workflow

  - nxos_interface Fix admin_state check for n6k

  - nxos_snmp_traps fix group all for N35 platforms

  - nxos_snmp_user fix platform fixes for get_snmp_user

  - nxos_vlan mode idempotence bug

  - nxos_vlan vlan names containing regex ctl chars should     be escaped

  - nxos_vtp_* modules fix n6k issues

  - openssl_certificate - fix private key passphrase     handling for ``cryptography`` backend.

  - openssl_pkcs12 - fixes crash when private key has a     passphrase and the module is run a second time.

  - os_stack - Apply tags conditionally so that the module     does not throw up an error when using an older distro of     openstacksdk

  - pass correct loading context to persistent connections     other than local

  - pkg_mgr - Ansible 2.8.0 failing to install yum packages     on Amazon Linux

  - postgresql - added initial SSL related tests

  - postgresql - added missing_required_libs, removed excess     param mapping

  - postgresql - move connect_to_db and get_pg_version into     module_utils/postgres.py     (https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/55514)

  - postgresql_db - add note to the documentation about     state dump and the incorrect rc     (https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/57297)

  - postgresql_db - fix for postgresql_db fails if stderr     contains output

  - postgresql_ping - fixed a typo in the module     documentation

  - preserve actual ssh error when we cannot connect.

  - route53_facts - the module did not advertise check mode     support, causing it not to be run in check mode.

  - sysctl: the module now also checks the output of STDERR     to report if values are correctly set     (https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/55695)

  - ufw - correctly check status when logging is off

  - uri - always return a value for status even during     failure

  - urls - Handle redirects properly for IPv6 address by not     splitting on ``:`` and rely on already parsed hostname     and port values

  - vmware_vm_facts - fix the support with regular ESXi

  - vyos_interface fix     <https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/57169>

  - we don't really need to template vars on definition as     we do this on demand in templating.

  - win_acl - Fix qualifier parser when using UNC paths -

  - win_hostname - Fix non netbios compliant name handling

  - winrm - Fix issue when attempting to parse CLIXML on     send input failure

  - xenserver_guest - fixed an issue where VM whould be     powered off even though check mode is used if     reconfiguration requires VM to be powered off.

  - xenserver_guest - proper error message is shown when     maximum number of network interfaces is reached and     multiple network interfaces are added at once.

  - yum - Fix false error message about autoremove not being     supported

  - yum - fix failure when using ``update_cache`` standalone

  - yum - handle special '_none_' value for proxy in     yum.conf and .repo files

Update to version 2.8.0

Major changes :

  - Experimental support for Ansible Collections and content     namespacing - Ansible content can now be packaged in a     collection and addressed via namespaces. This allows for     easier sharing, distribution, and installation of     bundled modules/roles/plugins, and consistent rules for     accessing specific content via namespaces.

  - Python interpreter discovery - The first time a Python     module runs on a target, Ansible will attempt to     discover the proper default Python interpreter to use     for the target platform/version (instead of immediately     defaulting to /usr/bin/python). You can override this     behavior by setting ansible_python_interpreter or via     config. (see     https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/50163)

  - become - The deprecated CLI arguments for --sudo,
    --sudo-user,

    --ask-sudo-pass, -su, --su-user, and --ask-su-pass have     been removed, in favor of the more generic --become,
    --become-user, --become-method, and

    --ask-become-pass.

  - become - become functionality has been migrated to a     plugin architecture, to allow customization of become     functionality and 3rd party become methods     (https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/50991)

  - addresses CVE-2018-16859, CVE-2018-16876, CVE-2019-3828,     CVE-2018-16837

For the full changelog see /usr/share/doc/packages/ansible/changelogs or online:
https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/stable-2.8/changelogs/CHANGELO G-v2.8.rst

This update for ansible to version 2.7.8 fixes the following issues :

Security issues fixed: &#9; 

  - CVE-2018-16837: Fixed an information leak in user module     (bsc#1112959).

  - CVE-2018-16859: Fixed an issue which clould allow     logging of password in plaintext in Windows powerShell     (bsc#1116587).

  - CVE-2019-3828: Fixed a path traversal vulnerability in     fetch module (bsc#1126503).

  - CVE-2018-10875: Fixed a potential code execution in     ansible.cfg (bsc#1099808).

  - CVE-2018-16876: Fixed an issue which could allow     information disclosure in vvv+ mode with no_log on     (bsc#1118896).

Other issues addressed :

  - prepare update to 2.7.8 for multiple releases     (boo#1102126, boo#1109957)

Release notes:
https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/stable-2.7/changelogs/CHANGELO G-v2.7.rst#id1

Several vulnerabilities have been found in Ansible, a configuration management, deployment, and task execution system :

  - CVE-2018-10855/ CVE-2018-16876     The no_log task flag wasn't honored, resulting in an     information leak.

  - CVE-2018-10875     ansible.cfg was read from the current working directory.

  - CVE-2018-16837     The user module leaked parameters passed to ssh-keygen     to the process environment.

  - CVE-2019-3828     The fetch module was susceptible to path traversal.

It was discovered that there was a potential SSH passphrase disclosure vulnerability in the ansible configuration management system,

The 'User' module leaked data that was passed as a parameter to the ssh-keygen(1) utility, thus revealing any credentials in cleartext form in the global process list.

For Debian 8 'Jessie', this issue has been fixed in ansible version 1.7.2+dfsg-2+deb8u1.

We recommend that you upgrade your ansible packages.

NOTE: Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the DLA security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

An update for ansible is now available for Ansible Engine 2.7.

Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having a security impact of Moderate. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available for each vulnerability from the CVE link(s) in the References section.

Ansible is a simple model-driven configuration management, multi-node deployment, and remote-task execution system. Ansible works over SSH and does not require any software or daemons to be installed on remote nodes. Extension modules can be written in any language and are transferred to managed machines automatically.

The following packages have been upgraded to a newer upstream version:
ansible (2.7.1)

Security fix(es) :

* ansible: Information leak in 'user' module (CVE-2018-16837)

For more details about the security issue(s), including the impact, a CVSS score, and other related information, refer to the CVE page(s) listed in the References section.

Red Hat would like to thank Markus Teufelberger (mgIT Consulting) for reporting this issue.

Bug Fix(es) :

See https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/v2.7.1/changelogs/CHANGELOG-v2 .7.rst for details on bug fixes in this release.

An update for ansible is now available for Ansible Engine 2.

Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having a security impact of Moderate. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available for each vulnerability from the CVE link(s) in the References section.

Ansible is a simple model-driven configuration management, multi-node deployment, and remote-task execution system. Ansible works over SSH and does not require any software or daemons to be installed on remote nodes. Extension modules can be written in any language and are transferred to managed machines automatically.

The following packages have been upgraded to a newer upstream version:
ansible (2.7.1)

Security fix(es) :

* ansible: Information leak in 'user' module (CVE-2018-16837)

For more details about the security issue(s), including the impact, a CVSS score, and other related information, refer to the CVE page(s) listed in the References section.

Red Hat would like to thank Markus Teufelberger (mgIT Consulting) for reporting this issue.

Bug Fix(es) :

See https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/v2.7.1/changelogs/CHANGELOG-v2 .7.rst for details on bug fixes in this release.

An update for ansible is now available for Ansible Engine 2.5.

Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having a security impact of Moderate. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available for each vulnerability from the CVE link(s) in the References section.

Ansible is a simple model-driven configuration management, multi-node deployment, and remote-task execution system. Ansible works over SSH and does not require any software or daemons to be installed on remote nodes. Extension modules can be written in any language and are transferred to managed machines automatically.

The following packages have been upgraded to a newer upstream version:
ansible (2.5.11)

Security fix(es) :

* ansible: Information leak in 'user' module (CVE-2018-16837)

For more details about the security issue(s), including the impact, a CVSS score, and other related information, refer to the CVE page(s) listed in the References section.

Red Hat would like to thank Markus Teufelberger (mgIT Consulting) for reporting this issue.

An update for ansible is now available for Ansible Engine 2.6.

Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having a security impact of Moderate. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available for each vulnerability from the CVE link(s) in the References section.

Ansible is a simple model-driven configuration management, multi-node deployment, and remote-task execution system. Ansible works over SSH and does not require any software or daemons to be installed on remote nodes. Extension modules can be written in any language and are transferred to managed machines automatically.

The following packages have been upgraded to a newer upstream version:
ansible (2.6.7)

Security fix(es) :

* ansible: Information leak in 'user' module (CVE-2018-16837)

For more details about the security issue(s), including the impact, a CVSS score, and other related information, refer to the CVE page(s) listed in the References section.

Red Hat would like to thank Markus Teufelberger (mgIT Consulting) for reporting this issue.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
159049	openSUSE 15 Security Update : ansible (openSUSE-SU-2022:0081-1)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	high
127043	Ubuntu 16.04 LTS / 18.04 LTS : Ansible vulnerabilities (USN-4072-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	critical
126326	openSUSE Security Update : ansible (openSUSE-2019-1635)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	high
123669	openSUSE Security Update : ansible (openSUSE-2019-1125)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	critical
122321	Debian DSA-4396-1 : ansible - security update	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	high
118891	Debian DLA-1576-1 : ansible security update	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	high
118789	RHEL 7 : ansible (RHSA-2018:3463)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	high
118788	RHEL 7 : ansible (RHSA-2018:3462)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	high
118787	RHEL 7 : ansible (RHSA-2018:3461)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	high
118786	RHEL 7 : ansible (RHSA-2018:3460)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	high

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2018-16837

high

Tenable Plugins

high

critical

high

critical

high

high

high

high

high

high