CVE-2026-12398 — galaxy-ng
HIGHCVE-2026-12398 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) OS Command Injection vulnerability in galaxy-ng. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
Galaxy NG: command injection vulnerability
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-2026-12398.
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-2026-12398 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 379,842 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-ngReal-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 command injection vulnerability was found in galaxy_ng. The do_git_checkout() function in the legacy role import API (v1) interpolates unsanitized git ref names (branch/tag names) into shell commands executed via subprocess.run() with shell=True. An authenticated user who controls a git repository can create a branch or tag with shell metacharacters in the name to achieve remote code execution on the pulp worker. The vulnerable endpoint is only reachable when GALAXY_ENABLE_LEGACY_ROLES is set to True, which is not the default configuration.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | galaxy-ng | all versions | No fix |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for galaxy-ng, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Remediation status
No patched version of galaxy-ng has shipped for CVE-2026-12398 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-2026-12398 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2026-12398. 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.
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform ships galaxy_ng with GALAXY_ENABLE_LEGACY_ROLES set to False by default in all supported versions (2.4, 2.5, 2.6). When this setting is False, the vulnerable v1 API endpoint is not registered and returns a 404 response, making the vulnerability unreachable. Standard AAP deployments…
The following practices would help for avoiding exposure and mitigate this flaw: 1. Ensure that GALAXY_ENABLE_LEGACY_ROLES is set to False (the default) in your Galaxy/Hub configuration. This prevents the v1 API routes from being registered, making the vulnerable endpoint entirely unreachable. 2. If legacy role support must be enabled, restrict access to the Galaxy/Hub API to trusted users only. The vulnerability requires authentication, so limiting who can authenticate reduces exposure. 3. Monitor import activity for suspicious git references containing shell metacharacters in branch or tag names.Source: Red Hat security advisory for CVE-2026-12398 (CC BY 4.0)
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-12398 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2026-12398 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.