GHSA-p62g-jhg6-v3rq is a high-severity (CVSS 7.1) Code Injection vulnerability in ansible. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-p62g-jhg6-v3rq is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Code Injection, Race Condition, and Execution with Unnecessary Privileges in Ansible
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 Engine, all versions 2.7.x, 2.8.x and 2.9.x prior to 2.7.17, 2.8.11, and 2.9.7 respectively, when using ansible_facts as a subkey of itself and promoting it to a variable when inject is enabled, overwriting the ansible_facts after the clean. An attacker could take advantage of this by altering the ansible_facts, such as ansible_hosts, users and any other key data which would lead into privilege escalation or code injection.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | ansible | ≥ 2.7.0a1&&< 2.7.17 | 2.7.17 |
| 🐍PyPI | ansible | ≥ 2.8.0a1&&< 2.8.11 | 2.8.11 |
| 🐍PyPI | ansible | ≥ 2.9.0a1&&< 2.9.7 | 2.9.7 |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for ansible. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update ansible to 2.7.17 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-p62g-jhg6-v3rq 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 pinpoints whether GHSA-p62g-jhg6-v3rq is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to GHSA-p62g-jhg6-v3rq. 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.
* 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. * Red Hat Gluster Storage and Red Hat Ceph Storage no longer maintains their own version of Ansible. The fix will be consumed from core Ansible. But we…
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-p62g-jhg6-v3rq in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-p62g-jhg6-v3rq across PyPI dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.