CVE-2024-9902 — ansible-core
MEDIUMCVE-2024-9902 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.3) CWE-863 vulnerability in ansible-core. A fix is available for ansible-core — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Ansible-core: ansible-core user may read/write unauthorized content
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
- 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-2024-9902.
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-2024-9902 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-core🐍ansible-core🐍ansible-core🐍ansible-core🐍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 Ansible. The ansible-core user module can allow an unprivileged user to silently create or replace the contents of any file on any system path and take ownership of it when a privileged user executes the user module against the unprivileged user's home directory. If the unprivileged user has traversal permissions on the directory containing the exploited target file, they retain full control over the contents of the file as its owner.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | ansible-core | all versions | 2.14.18rc1pip install --upgrade 'ansible-core==2.14.18rc1' |
| 🐍PyPI | ansible-core | ≥ 2.15.0b1&&< 2.15.13rc1 | 2.15.13rc1pip install --upgrade 'ansible-core==2.15.13rc1' |
| 🐍PyPI | ansible-core | ≥ 2.16.0b1&&< 2.16.13rc1 | 2.16.13rc1pip install --upgrade 'ansible-core==2.16.13rc1' |
| 🐍PyPI | ansible-core | ≥ 2.17.0b1&&< 2.17.6rc1 | 2.17.6rc1pip install --upgrade 'ansible-core==2.17.6rc1' |
| 🐍PyPI | ansible-core | ≥ 2.18.0b1&&< 2.18.0rc2 | 2.18.0rc2pip install --upgrade 'ansible-core==2.18.0rc2' |
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.
Fix
Update ansible-core to 2.14.18rc1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-9902 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 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2024-9902 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2024-9902. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ansible Automation Platform Execution Environments | ansible-automation-platform/ansible-builder-rhel8:1.2.0-91 | RHSA-2024:8969 |
| Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.4 for RHEL 8 | ansible-core-1:2.15.13-1.el8ap | RHSA-2024:10762 |
| Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.5 for RHEL 8 | ansible-core-1:2.16.13-1.el8ap | RHSA-2024:9894 |
| Red Hat OpenStack Platform 17.1 for RHEL 9 | openstack-ansible-core-0:2.14.2-4.6.el9ost | RHSA-2025:1861 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-9902 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2024-9902 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.