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.

The remote Ubuntu 14.04 LTS / 16.04 LTS / 18.04 LTS / 20.04 LTS host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the USN-7330-1 advisory.

    It was discovered that Ansible did not properly verify certain fields of X.509 certificates. An attacker     could possibly use this issue to spoof SSL servers if they were able to intercept network communications.
    This issue only affected Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. (CVE-2015-3908)

    Martin Carpenter discovered that certain connection plugins for Ansible did not properly restrict users.
    An attacker with local access could possibly use this issue to escape a restricted environment via     symbolic links misuse. This issue only affected Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. (CVE-2015-6240)

    Robin Schneider discovered that Ansible's apt_key module did not properly verify key fingerprints. A     remote attacker could possibly use this issue to perform key injection, leading to the access of sensitive     information. This issue only affected Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. (CVE-2016-8614)

    It was discovered that Ansible would expose passwords in certain instances. An attacker could possibly use     specially crafted input related to this issue to access sensitive information. This issue only affected     Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. (CVE-2019-10206)

    It was discovered that Ansible incorrectly logged sensitive information. An attacker with local access     could possibly use this issue to access sensitive information. This issue only affected Ubuntu 14.04 LTS,     Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, and Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. (CVE-2019-14846)

    It was discovered that Ansible's solaris_zone module accepted input without performing input checking. A     remote attacker could possibly use this issue to enable the execution of arbitrary code. This issue only     affected Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. (CVE-2019-14904)

    It was discovered that Ansible did not generate sufficiently random values, which could lead to the     exposure of passwords. An attacker could possibly use this issue to access sensitive information. This     issue only affected Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. (CVE-2020-10729)

    It was discovered that Ansible's svn module could disclose passwords to users within the same node. An     attacker could possibly use this issue to access sensitive information. (CVE-2020-1739)

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory.

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

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

  - 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)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

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.

The remote Debian 10 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the dsa-4950 advisory.

    Several vulnerabilities have been found in Ansible, a configuration management, deployment and task     execution system, which could result in information disclosure or argument injection. In addition a race     condition in become_user was fixed. For the stable distribution (buster), these problems have been fixed     in version 2.7.7+dfsg-1+deb10u1. We recommend that you upgrade your ansible packages. For the detailed     security status of ansible please refer to its security tracker page at: https://security-     tracker.debian.org/tracker/ansible

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Debian security advisory.

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

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
232217	Ubuntu 14.04 LTS / 16.04 LTS / 18.04 LTS / 20.04 LTS : Ansible vulnerabilities (USN-7330-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	high
222987	Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2020-10729	Nessus	Misc.	medium
159049	openSUSE 15 Security Update : ansible (openSUSE-SU-2022:0081-1)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	high
152270	Debian DSA-4950-1 : ansible - security update	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	high

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2020-10729

medium

Tenable Plugins

high

medium

high

high