CVE-2013-4260 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.2) CWE-264 vulnerability in ansible. A fix is available for ansible — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Ansible Arbitrary File Overwrite Vulnerability
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
ansibleReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
lib/ansible/playbook/__init__.py in Ansible 1.2.x before 1.2.3, when playbook does not run due to an error, allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on a retry file with a predictable name in /var/tmp/ansible/.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | ansible | ≥ 1.2&&< 1.2.3 | 1.2.3pip install --upgrade 'ansible==1.2.3' |
Affected Products
ansibleredhatDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for ansible, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update ansible to 1.2.3 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2013-4260 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2013-4260 in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.