CVE-2023-5189 — galaxy-importer
MEDIUMCVE-2023-5189 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.3) CWE-23 vulnerability in galaxy-importer. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
Ansible galaxy-importer Path Traversal vulnerability
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2023-5189.
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-2023-5189 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 377,636 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
galaxy-importerReal-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 path traversal vulnerability exists in Ansible when extracting tarballs. An attacker could craft a malicious tarball so that when using the galaxy importer of Ansible Automation Hub, a symlink could be dropped on the disk, resulting in files being overwritten.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | galaxy-importer | all versions | No fix |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for galaxy-importer, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Remediation status
No patched version of galaxy-importer has shipped for CVE-2023-5189 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-2023-5189 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2023-5189. 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 | python3x-galaxy-importer-0:0.4.18-1.el8ap | RHSA-2023:7773 |
| Red Hat Satellite 6.14 for RHEL 8 | python-galaxy-importer-0:0.4.18-2.el8pc | RHSA-2024:1536 |
| Red Hat Satellite 6.15 for RHEL 8 | python-galaxy-importer-0:0.4.19-2.el8pc | RHSA-2024:2010 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-5189 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2023-5189 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.