CVE-2019-10139
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 · uneditedDuring HE deployment via cockpit-ovirt, cockpit-ovirt generates an ansible variable file `/var/lib/ovirt-hosted-engine-setup/cockpit/ansibleVarFileXXXXXX.var` which contains the admin and the appliance passwords as plain-text. At the of the deployment procedure, these files are deleted.
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 confidenceDuring Hosted Engine deployment via cockpit-ovirt, temporary Ansible variable files created in /var/lib/ovirt-hosted-engine-setup/cockpit/ contain admin and appliance passwords in plain-text. While these files are deleted post-deployment, local attackers with shell access during the deployment window can retrieve these credentials.
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 dataall versionsCVSS 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check if cockpit-ovirt is installedRun: rpm -qa | grep -i cockpit-ovirt or dpkg -l | grep -i cockpit-ovirt depending on OSAffected if cockpit-ovirt package is present on the system
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Verify Hosted Engine deployment historyRun: ls -la /var/lib/ovirt-hosted-engine-setup/ and check for the cockpit subdirectoryAffected if The directory /var/lib/ovirt-hosted-engine-setup/cockpit/ exists, indicating a deployment was performed
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Inspect for remaining temporary variable filesRun: ls -la /var/lib/ovirt-hosted-engine-setup/cockpit/ and check for any *.yml, *.yaml, or variable files that may contain credentialsAffected if Any temporary Ansible variable files remain in the cockpit directory with readable content
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Check file permissions on the deployment directoryRun: stat -c '%a %U:%G' /var/lib/ovirt-hosted-engine-setup/cockpit/ and compare to expected restrictive permissions (e.g., 700 or 750)Affected if Directory permissions are overly permissive (e.g., 755, 775) allowing unauthorized local users to read contents
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Check if Hosted Engine VM is configuredRun: hosted-engine --vm-status to confirm an active hosted engine deployment exists or was recently completedAffected if Hosted Engine is or was deployed, creating the vulnerability window during which credentials could have been exposed
A system is affected if cockpit-ovirt was used for Hosted Engine deployment and the temporary credential files in /var/lib/ovirt-hosted-engine-setup/cockpit/ either remain accessible or were present with weak permissions during the deployment window.
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 dataImplement proper file permissions (umask) or use encrypted/secured storage for sensitive variables during deployment; ensure strict access controls limit system access during HE deployment.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,480.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-10139 — 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-2019-10139 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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