CVE-2026-123037

Public on 2026-11-06
Modified on 2026-11-07
Description
A flaw was found in the ansible-core user module. When generate_ssh_key is enabled, User.ssh_key_gen() guards the key files against symlinks but checks the ~/.ssh directory only with os.path.exists(). An unprivileged user on a managed node who replaces their ~/.ssh with a symlink to an existing root-writable directory causes the privileged module to write the generated key pair through the symlink and then chown both files to that user. Because such files can be dropped into directories processed by schedulers (e.g. /etc/cron.daily) or dynamic MOTD (/etc/update-motd.d), the user can escalate to root on the managed node. This is an incomplete fix of CVE-2024-9902.
Severity
Medium severity
Medium
See what this means
CVSS v3 Base Score
6.7
See breakdown

Affected Packages

Platform Package Release Date Advisory Status
Amazon Linux 2023 ansible-core Pending Fix
Amazon Linux 2027 Preview ansible-core Pending Fix

CVSS Scores

Score Type Score Vector
Amazon Linux CVSSv3 6.7 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H