Externally Controlled Reference to a Resource in Another Sphere, Improper Input Validation, and External Control of File Name or Path in AnsibleGHSA-frxj-5j27-f8rf
MEDIUMGHSA-frxj-5j27-f8rf is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.6) Improper Input Validation 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-frxj-5j27-f8rf by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 385,738 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 vulnerability was found in Ansible Engine versions 2.9.x before 2.9.3, 2.8.x before 2.8.8, 2.7.x before 2.7.16 and earlier, where in Ansible's nxos_file_copy module can be used to copy files to a flash or bootflash on NXOS devices. Malicious code could craft the filename parameter to perform OS command injections. This could result in a loss of confidentiality of the system among other issues.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | ansible | ≥ 2.7.0a1&&< 2.7.16 | 2.7.16pip install --upgrade 'ansible==2.7.16' |
| 🐍PyPI | ansible | ≥ 2.8.0a1&&< 2.8.8 | 2.8.8pip install --upgrade 'ansible==2.8.8' |
| 🐍PyPI | ansible | ≥ 2.9.0a1&&< 2.9.3 | 2.9.3pip install --upgrade 'ansible==2.9.3' |
Affected Products
fedorafedoraprojectbackports sleopensuseleapopensuseansible engineredhatansible towerredhatceph storageredhatDetection & 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 2.7.16 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-frxj-5j27-f8rf is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Stop passing untrusted input into the interpreter or shell: call the affected binary with an argument array rather than a composed command string, reject anything outside a strict allowlist of expected values, and run the component under an account that cannot reach beyond the work it legitimately does.
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 2.7.15, 2.8.7, and 2.9.2 as well as previous versions are affected. Red Hat Gluster Storage 3 and Red Hat Ceph Storage 3 no longer maintain their own version of Ansible. Therefore this fix will be consumed directly from core Ansible. In Red Hat OpenStack Platform, because the flaw has a lower impact and…
There is no mitigation for this issue, the flaw can only be resolved by applying updates.Source: Red Hat security advisory for GHSA-frxj-5j27-f8rf (CC BY 4.0)
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Ansible Engine 2.7 for RHEL 7 | ansible-0:2.7.16-1.el7ae | RHSA-2020:0217 |
| Red Hat Ansible Engine 2.8 for RHEL 7 | ansible-0:2.8.8-1.el7ae | RHSA-2020:0216 |
| Red Hat Ansible Engine 2.9 for RHEL 7 | ansible-0:2.9.4-1.el7ae | RHSA-2020:0215 |
| Red Hat Ansible Engine 2 for RHEL 7 | ansible-0:2.9.4-1.el7ae | RHSA-2020:0218 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-frxj-5j27-f8rf in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.