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MEDIUM severity

CVE-2020-1753 — ansible

MEDIUMFix: ansible-collections/kubernetes#51

CVE-2020-1753 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.5) Information Exposure vulnerability in ansible. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for ansible — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Insertion of Sensitive Information into Log File, Invocation of Process Using Visible Sensitive Information, and Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor in Ansible

Also known asGHSA-86hp-cj9j-33vvPYSEC-2020-210
Published
Updated
Affected
3 pkgs
Patched
3 / 3
Exploits
1 known
Exploitation data as of Oct 10, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗
0.5%probability of exploitation in next 30 days
Lower Risk0.00%
Lower risk than most CVEs42th percentile — riskier than 42% of all scored CVEsHighest risk
0.00%0.34%0.67%1.01%0.0%0.5%Apr 26Aug 26Oct 26

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2020-1753 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 385,738 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Real-World Exposure

3 pkgs affected
🐍ansible🐍ansible🐍ansible

Real-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 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.

Affected Packages

3 total 3 fixed
EcosystemPackageVulnerable rangeFix
🐍PyPIansible≥ 2.7.0a1&&< 2.7.182.7.18pip install --upgrade 'ansible==2.7.18'
🐍PyPIansible≥ 2.8.0a1&&< 2.8.122.8.12pip install --upgrade 'ansible==2.8.12'
🐍PyPIansible≥ 2.9.0a1&&< 2.9.72.9.7pip install --upgrade 'ansible==2.9.7'

Affected Products

4 products · 11 configurations
OS
debian linuxdebian
1 version
10.0
OS
fedorafedoraproject
3 versions
303132
Application
ansible engineredhat
≥ 2.9.0 && < 2.9.7
range
Application
ansible towerredhat
≥ 3.6.0 && ≤ 3.6.3
range
Exploits & PoCs
1

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

A security flaw was found in Ansible Engine, all Ansible 2.7.x versions …

github.comNVDAug 2021

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

  1. Detect

    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.

  2. Fix

    Update ansible to 2.7.18 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-1753 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

  3. Workarounds

    Assume what was exposed is already known: rotate any credential, token or key that the affected component could return, restrict the endpoint to callers that genuinely need it, and strip sensitive fields from responses and error output at the boundary rather than relying on the client not to read them.

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.

Red HatModerate

Ansible Engine 2.7.17, 2.8.10, and 2.9.6 as well as previous versions are affected. Ansible Tower 3.4.5, 3.5.5 and 3.6.3 as well as previous versions are affected. In Red Hat OpenStack Platform, because the flaw has a lower impact, ansible is not directly customer exposed, and the fix would require a substantial…

Workaround published by Red Hat
Currently, there is no mitigation for this issue.
Source: Red Hat security advisory for CVE-2020-1753 (CC BY 4.0)
ProductFixed inAdvisory
Red Hat Ansible Engine 2.7 for RHEL 7ansible-0:2.7.18-1.el7aeRHSA-2020:2142
Red Hat Ansible Engine 2.8 for RHEL 7ansible-0:2.8.16-1.el7aeRHBA-2020:4195
Red Hat Ansible Engine 2.9 for RHEL 7ansible-0:2.9.7-1.el7aeRHSA-2020:1541
Red Hat Ansible Engine 2 for RHEL 7ansible-0:2.9.7-1.el7aeRHSA-2020:1542
Red Hat Ansible Tower 3.4 for RHEL 7ansible-tower-34/ansible-tower-memcached:1.4.15-28RHBA-2020:0547
Red Hat Ansible Tower 3.5 for RHEL 7ansible-tower-35/ansible-tower:3.5.6-1RHBA-2020:1539

Frequently Asked Questions

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.
O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

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CVE-2020-1753: ansible — Fixed in 2.7.18