GHSA-jpxc-vmjf-9fcj is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.5) CWE-532 vulnerability in ansible-core. A fix is available for ansible-core — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Ansible vulnerable to Insertion of Sensitive Information into Log File
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-jpxc-vmjf-9fcj.
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-jpxc-vmjf-9fcj 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-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, where sensitive information stored in Ansible Vault files can be exposed in plaintext during the execution of a playbook. This occurs when using tasks such as include_vars to load vaulted variables without setting the no_log: true parameter, resulting in sensitive data being printed in the playbook output or logs. This can lead to the unintentional disclosure of secrets like passwords or API keys, compromising security and potentially allowing unauthorized access or actions.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | ansible-core | ≥ 2.17.0b1&&< 2.17.6 | 2.17.6pip install --upgrade 'ansible-core==2.17.6' |
| 🐍PyPI | ansible-core | all versions | 2.16.13pip install --upgrade 'ansible-core==2.16.13' |
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 2.17.6 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-jpxc-vmjf-9fcj 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-jpxc-vmjf-9fcj can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-jpxc-vmjf-9fcj. 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.
This issue is classified as moderate rather than important because while it does expose sensitive information during playbook execution, the exposure is limited to logs and output generated during the run, which is typically accessible only to authorized users with sufficient privileges. The flaw does not result in an…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Ansible Automation Platform Execution Environments | ansible-automation-platform/ansible-builder-rhel8:1.2.0-91 | RHSA-2024:8969 |
| Discovery 1 for RHEL 9 | discovery/discovery-server-rhel9:1.12.0-1 | RHSA-2025:1249 |
| 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 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-jpxc-vmjf-9fcj in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-jpxc-vmjf-9fcj across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.