Ansible EngineApplication · Redhat
CVE-2018-10874
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedIn ansible it was found that inventory variables are loaded from current working directory when running ad-hoc command which are under attacker's control, allowing to run arbitrary code as a result.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceAnsible loads inventory variables from the current working directory when executing ad-hoc commands. An attacker who can control or place malicious variable files in the CWD can inject and execute arbitrary code through the variable loading mechanism.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
Ansible EngineApplication
= 2.0= 2.4= 2.5= 2.6
OpenstackApplication
= 10= 12= 13
VirtualizationApplication
= 4.0
Virtualization HostApplication
= 4.0CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check Ansible versionRun 'ansible --version' to identify the installed Ansible Engine versionAffected if Version matches 2.0, 2.4, 2.5, or 2.6 (Redhat Ansible Engine)
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Identify Ansible execution contextReview how Ansible is invoked in your environment; check crontabs, scripts, CI/CD pipelines, and systemd units for 'ansible' or 'ansible-playbook' commandsAffected if Ansible ad-hoc commands or playbooks are executed from directories that are not isolated or trusted
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Inspect CWD for variable filesList all files in directories where Ansible commands are run, looking for group_vars/, host_vars/, or variable files (*.yml, *.yaml) that could be loaded as inventory variablesAffected if Variable files exist in directories from which Ansible is executed and those directories are writable or accessible to untrusted users
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Check file permissions on inventory pathsRun 'ls -la' on directories used for Ansible execution and inventory to verify ownership and write permissionsAffected if Directories or variable files are owned by untrusted users or have permissive write permissions (e.g., world-writable)
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Review inventory configurationExamine ansible.cfg, environment variables (ANSIBLE_INVENTORY), and command-line inventory flags to determine if inventory sources rely on relative paths or CWDAffected if Inventory configuration uses relative paths or defaults to discovering inventory from the current working directory
You are affected if Ansible Engine version 2.0, 2.4, 2.5, or 2.6 is installed AND Ansible commands are executed from directories containing untrusted or attacker-controllable variable files.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataEnsure Ansible is always run from a trusted, controlled working directory and use absolute paths for all inventory files; audit playbooks and scripts to remove reliance on CWD-based variable loading.
Fix this in Ansible Engine
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,560.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-10874 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2018-10874 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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