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Ansible EngineApplication · Redhat

CVE-2018-10875

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2018-07-13
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
Zero-click

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 · unedited
A flaw was found in ansible. ansible.cfg is read from the current working directory which can be altered to make it point to a plugin or a module path under the control of an attacker, thus allowing the attacker to execute arbitrary code.

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 confidence

In Ansible, the ansible.cfg configuration file is read from the current working directory (CWD) instead of from a fixed, trusted location. An attacker who can control or influence the CWD where ansible is executed can place a malicious ansible.cfg that points to attacker-controlled plugin or module paths, enabling arbitrary code execution.

MitigationUpgrade Ansible to a patched version that does not read ansible.cfg from CWD. Alternatively, ensure ansible is only run from trusted directories and never from directories writable by untrusted users.

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
Affected:= 2.0= 2.4= 2.5= 2.6
Ceph StorageApplication
Affected:= 2.0= 3.0
Gluster StorageApplication
Affected:= 3.0.0
OpenshiftApplication
Affected:= 3.0
OpenstackApplication
Affected:= 10= 12= 13
VirtualizationApplication
Affected:= 4.0
Virtualization HostApplication
Affected:= 4.0
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 9.0= 8.0

CVSS 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:3.1/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify installed Ansible version
    Run 'ansible --version' or 'ansible-playbook --version' to determine the Ansible Engine version
    Affected if The version matches 2.0, 2.4, 2.5, or 2.4-2.6 range from Red Hat or the corresponding Debian versions 8.0/9.0
  2. Locate ansible.cfg in current working directory
    Run 'ls -la ansible.cfg' in the directory where you execute Ansible commands
    Affected if An ansible.cfg file exists in the CWD and was not intentionally placed there by an administrator
  3. Inspect ansible.cfg for untrusted paths
    If ansible.cfg exists in CWD, examine its contents with 'cat ansible.cfg' and check for 'library', 'module_utils', or 'roles_path' settings pointing to writable or untrusted directories
    Affected if The config file points to paths outside of trusted system directories like /usr/share/ansible or /etc/ansible
  4. Check CWD permissions
    Run 'ls -ld .' in the directory where Ansible is executed to verify if other users have write access
    Affected if The current working directory is world-writable or group-writable, allowing an untrusted user to create or modify ansible.cfg
  5. Verify Ansible execution context
    Review logs, scripts, or automation that invoke Ansible to identify if it is run from directories that may be controlled by other users (such as /tmp, user home directories, or uploaded content directories)
    Affected if Ansible is routinely executed from directories writable by untrusted users or from dynamically determined paths

You are affected if you run a vulnerable Ansible version from directories where an attacker could place a malicious ansible.cfg with custom module/plugin paths.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Upgrade Ansible to a patched version that does not read ansible.cfg from CWD. Alternatively, ensure ansible is only run from trusted directories and never from directories writable by untrusted users.

Fix this in Ansible Engine Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,060
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2018-10875 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data