CVE-2023-4237 — ansible-core
HIGHCVE-2023-4237 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.3) CWE-497 vulnerability in ansible-core. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
Platform: ec2_key module prints out the private key directly to the standard output
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2023-4237 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,333 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
ansible-coreReal-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 flaw was found in the Ansible Automation Platform. When creating a new keypair, the ec2_key module prints out the private key directly to the standard output. This flaw allows an attacker to fetch those keys from the log files, compromising the system's confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | ansible-core | ≥ 2.8.0 | No fix |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for ansible-core, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Remediation status
No patched version of ansible-core has shipped for CVE-2023-4237 yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
Mitigate without a patch
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 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2023-4237 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2023-4237. 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.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.4 for RHEL 8 | see advisory | RHBA-2023:5653 |
| Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.4 for RHEL 8 | ansible-automation-platform-24/ee-supported-rhel8:1.0.0-423 | RHBA-2023:5666 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-4237 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2023-4237 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.