GHSA-893h-35v4-mxqx is a high-severity (CVSS 7.8) Path Traversal vulnerability in ansible. A fix is available for ansible — see the affected versions and patch details below.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-893h-35v4-mxqx by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 385,987 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
ansible🐍ansible🐍ansibleReal-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 2.7.17 and prior, 2.8.9 and prior, and 2.9.6 and prior when using the Extract-Zip function from the win_unzip module as the extracted file(s) are not checked if they belong to the destination folder. An attacker could take advantage of this flaw by crafting an archive anywhere in the file system, using a path traversal. This issue is fixed in 2.10.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | ansible | ≥ 2.8.0a1&&< 2.8.9 | 2.8.9pip install --upgrade 'ansible==2.8.9' |
| 🐍PyPI | ansible | ≥ 2.9.0a1&&< 2.9.6 | 2.9.6pip install --upgrade 'ansible==2.9.6' |
| 🐍PyPI | ansible | all versions | 2.7.17pip install --upgrade 'ansible==2.7.17' |
Affected Products
ansible engineredhatansible towerredhatDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
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.
Fix
Update ansible to 2.8.9 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-893h-35v4-mxqx is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Resolve every user-supplied path to its canonical form and reject anything that escapes the intended directory, and run the component under an account that has no read or write access outside the directory it legitimately serves.
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.
Ansible Engine 2.7.16, 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…
Currently, there is no mitigation for this issue except avoid using the affected win_unzip module when possible.Source: Red Hat security advisory for GHSA-893h-35v4-mxqx (CC BY 4.0)
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Ansible Engine 2.7 for RHEL 7 | ansible-0:2.7.17-1.el7ae | RHSA-2020:1544 |
| Red Hat Ansible Engine 2.8 for RHEL 7 | ansible-0:2.8.11-1.el7ae | RHSA-2020:1543 |
| Red Hat Ansible Engine 2.9 for RHEL 7 | ansible-0:2.9.7-1.el7ae | RHSA-2020:1541 |
| Red Hat Ansible Engine 2 for RHEL 7 | ansible-0:2.9.7-1.el7ae | RHSA-2020:1542 |
| Red Hat Ansible Tower 3.4 for RHEL 7 | ansible-tower-34/ansible-tower-memcached:1.4.15-28 | RHBA-2020:0547 |
| Red Hat Ansible Tower 3.5 for RHEL 7 | ansible-tower-35/ansible-tower:3.5.6-1 | RHBA-2020:1539 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-893h-35v4-mxqx in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.