CVE-2014-4966 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) CWE-74 vulnerability in ansible. A fix is available for ansible — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Ansible Arbitrary Code Execution
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
Ansible before 1.6.7 does not prevent inventory data with "{{" and "lookup" substrings, and does not prevent remote data with "{{" substrings, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via (1) crafted lookup('pipe') calls or (2) crafted Jinja2 data.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | ansible | all versions | 1.6.7pip install --upgrade 'ansible==1.6.7' |
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 1.6.7 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2014-4966 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-2014-4966 in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.