GHSA-99w6-3xph-cx78 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.5) Improper Input Validation vulnerability in ansible-core. A fix is available for ansible-core — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Ansible-Core vulnerable to content protections bypass
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 GHSA-99w6-3xph-cx78.
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
GHSA-99w6-3xph-cx78 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 376,715 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-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-Core. This vulnerability allows attackers to bypass unsafe content protections using the hostvars object to reference and execute templated content. This issue can lead to arbitrary code execution if remote data or module outputs are improperly templated within playbooks.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | ansible-core | ≥ 2.18.0b1&&< 2.18.1rc1 | 2.18.1rc1pip install --upgrade 'ansible-core==2.18.1rc1' |
| 🐍PyPI | ansible-core | ≥ 2.17.0b1&&< 2.17.7rc1 | 2.17.7rc1pip install --upgrade 'ansible-core==2.17.7rc1' |
| 🐍PyPI | ansible-core | all versions | 2.16.14rc1pip install --upgrade 'ansible-core==2.16.14rc1' |
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 2.18.1rc1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-99w6-3xph-cx78 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 GHSA-99w6-3xph-cx78 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-99w6-3xph-cx78. 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-rhel8:1.2.0-93 | RHSA-2024:10770 |
| Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.5 for RHEL 8 | ansible-core-1:2.16.14-1.el8ap | RHSA-2024:11145 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-99w6-3xph-cx78 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-99w6-3xph-cx78 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.