CVE-2019-14905
MEDIUMCVE-2019-14905 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.6) Improper Input Validation vulnerability in ansible. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2019-14905 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Externally Controlled Reference to a Resource in Another Sphere, Improper Input Validation, and External Control of File Name or Path in Ansible
Real-World Exposure
ansible🐍ansible🐍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
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.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | ansible | ≥ 2.7.0a1&&< 2.7.16 | 2.7.16 |
| 🐍PyPI | ansible | ≥ 2.8.0a1&&< 2.8.8 | 2.8.8 |
| 🐍PyPI | ansible | ≥ 2.9.0a1&&< 2.9.3 | 2.9.3 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for ansible. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update ansible to 2.7.16 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2019-14905 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.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2019-14905 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to CVE-2019-14905. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
Ansible Engine 2.7.15, 2.8.7, and 2.9.2 as well as previous versions are affected. Red Hat Gluster Storage 3 and Red Hat Ceph Storage 3 no longer maintain their own version of Ansible. Therefore this fix will be consumed directly from core Ansible. In Red Hat OpenStack Platform, because the flaw has a lower impact and…
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2019-14905 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2019-14905 across PyPI dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.