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Fencer Intel
medium 6.6

CVE-2016-9587 json

Ansible is vulnerable to an improper input validation in Ansible's handling of data sent from client systems

published 2018-04-24 8 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also GHSA-m956-frf4-m2wr , PYSEC-2018-39 , EUVD-2018-0012

cvss
6.6
version 3.0, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
17.0%
EPSS 17.0% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 97%
public exploits
1
Exploit-DB

Summary

Ansible before versions 2.1.4, 2.2.1 is vulnerable to an improper input validation in Ansible's handling of data sent from client systems. An attacker with control over a client system being managed by Ansible and the ability to send facts back to the Ansible server could use this flaw to execute arbitrary code on the Ansible server using the Ansible server privileges.

Patch / fix

  • pypi ansible 2.1.4.0, 2.2.1.0
  • redhat ansible 2.1.4
  • ansible ansible 2.2.1
  • ansible Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2.2.0.0-3

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2016-9587

  • ansible Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 2.0.0.2-2ubuntu1.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2016-9587

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • ansible rhev manager 4 2.3.0.0-4.el7
  • ansible rhscon 2, openstack 10 2.2.1.0-1.el7
  • ceph-ansible rhscon 2 2.1.9-1.el7scon
  • ceph-installer rhscon 2 1.2.2-1.el7scon
  • python-passlib rhscon 2 1.6.5-1.1.el7
  • ansible storage 3.1, openshift 3.4, openshift 3.3 +1 more 2.2.1.0-2.el7
  • openshift-ansible openshift 3.2 3.2.53-1.git.0.2fefc17.el7
  • openshift-ansible openshift 3.3 3.3.67-1.git.0.7c5da0c.el7

red hat advisories RHSA-2017:1685RHSA-2017:0515RHSA-2017:0448RHSA-2017:0260RHSA-2017:0195

  • ansible openSUSE Leap 15.5, Manager Proxy Module 4.3, Manager Client Tools 15 2.9.27-150000.1.17.2
  • grafana Manager Client Tools 15 9.5.18-150000.1.63.2
  • spacecmd openSUSE Leap 15.5, Manager Client Tools 15 4.3.27-150000.3.116.2
  • mgr-daemon Manager Client Tools 15 4.3.9-150000.1.47.2
  • spacewalk-koan Manager Client Tools 15 4.3.6-150000.3.33.2
  • dracut-saltboot openSUSE Leap 15.5, Manager Client Tools for SLE Micro 5, Manager Client Tools 15 0.1.1710765237.46af599-150000.1.53.2
  • POS_Image-JeOS7 openSUSE Leap 15.5, Manager Client Tools 15 0.1.1710765237.46af599-150000.1.21.2
  • uyuni-common-libs Manager Client Tools 15 4.3.10-150000.1.39.2

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2024:1509-1SUSE-SU-2024:1427-1SUSE-SU-2020:3309-1SUSE-SU-2017:3029-1

  • ansible-14 openSUSE Tumbleweed 14.6.0-1.1
  • ansible-13 openSUSE Tumbleweed 13.7.0-1.1
  • ansible-12 openSUSE Tumbleweed 12.2.0-1.1
  • ansible-11 openSUSE Tumbleweed 11.11.0-1.1
  • ansible-10 openSUSE Tumbleweed 10.6.0-1.1
  • ansible-9 openSUSE Tumbleweed 9.8.0-1.1
  • ansible Package Hub 12 2.4.1.0-6.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:12447-1openSUSE-SU-2026:10944-1openSUSE-SU-2025:15753-1openSUSE-SU-2025:15605-1openSUSE-SU-2024:14536-1openSUSE-SU-2024:14244-1

  • ansible Alpine 3.4 2.1.4.0-r0
  • ansible Alpine 3.5 2.2.1.0-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2016-9587

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • ansible Arch Linux 2.2.1.0rc5-3

arch linux advisories AVG-137

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2016-9587 updated cvss 6.6

Ansible: Compromised remote hosts can lead to running commands on the Ansible controller

  • Red Hat OpenStack Platform 11 (Ocata) ansible
    affected: no fix available
  • Red Hat Quickstart Cloud Installer 1 ansible
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Gluster Storage Server 3.1 on RHEL-7 ansible 2.2.1.0-2.el7, gdeploy 2.0.1-8.el7rhgs, python-passlib 1.6.5-1.el7, python2-passlib 1.6.5-1.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0260
  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 3.2 ansible 2.2.1.0-2.el7, openshift-ansible 3.2.53-1.git.0.2fefc17.el7, atomic-openshift-utils 3.2.53-1.git.0.2fefc17.el7, openshift-ansible-roles 3.2.53-1.git.0.2fefc17.el7, openshift-ansible-playbooks 3.2.53-1.git.0.2fefc17.el7, openshift-ansible-filter-plugins 3.2.53-1.git.0.2fefc17.el7, +1 more Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 3.3 ansible 2.2.1.0-2.el7, openshift-ansible 3.3.67-1.git.0.7c5da0c.el7, atomic-openshift-utils 3.3.67-1.git.0.7c5da0c.el7, openshift-ansible-roles 3.3.67-1.git.0.7c5da0c.el7, openshift-ansible-playbooks 3.3.67-1.git.0.7c5da0c.el7, openshift-ansible-filter-plugins 3.3.67-1.git.0.7c5da0c.el7, +2 more Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 3.4 ansible 2.2.1.0-2.el7, openshift-ansible 3.4.67-1.git.0.14a0b4d.el7, atomic-openshift-utils 3.4.67-1.git.0.14a0b4d.el7, openshift-ansible-roles 3.4.67-1.git.0.14a0b4d.el7, openshift-ansible-playbooks 3.4.67-1.git.0.14a0b4d.el7, openshift-ansible-filter-plugins 3.4.67-1.git.0.14a0b4d.el7, +2 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0448
  • Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10.0 ansible 2.2.1.0-1.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0195
  • Red Hat Storage Console Installer 2 ansible 2.2.1.0-1.el7, ceph-ansible 2.1.9-1.el7scon, python-passlib 1.6.5-1.1.el7, ceph-installer 1.2.2-1.el7scon
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0515
  • Red Hat Virtualization Manager 4.1 ansible 2.3.0.0-4.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:1685

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Timeline

  1. First public exploit (EDB-41013)
  2. Published

Exploit prediction

17.01% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 97% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • EDB-41013 Ansible 2.1.4/2.2.1 - Command Execution remote, 2017-01-09

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.0 6.6 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 8.1 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 9.3 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
GitHub 3.1 8.1 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
pypi ansible
<2.1.4.0
>=2.2.0.0, <2.2.1.0
2.1.4.0
2.2.1.0

Affected products

  • unspecified Ansible

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-20 Improper Input Validation

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.