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Fencer Intel
high 7.1

CVE-2021-3583 json

Improper Input Validation and Command Injection in Ansible

published 5y ago modified 4mo ago also GHSA-2pfh-q76x-gwvm , PYSEC-2021-358 , EUVD-2021-0010

cvss
7.1
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.9%
EPSS 0.9% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 59%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

A flaw was found in Ansible, where a user's controller is vulnerable to template injection. This issue can occur through facts used in the template if the user is trying to put templates in multi-line YAML strings and the facts being handled do not routinely include special template characters. This flaw allows attackers to perform command injection, which discloses sensitive information. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to confidentiality and integrity.

Patch / fix

  • pypi ansible 2.9.23, 2.9.23rc1, 2.10.11rc1, 2.11.2rc1
  • redhat ansible_engine 2.9.23
  • redhat ansible_tower 3.7.0
  • ansible Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 5.4.0-1
  • ansible-core Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2.12.0-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2021-3583

  • ansible Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS 2.0.0.2-2ubuntu1.3+esm1
  • ansible Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS 2.5.1+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1+esm1
  • ansible Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS 2.9.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1~esm1
  • ansible Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS 2.10.7+merged+base+2.10.8+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1~esm1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2021-3583

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 ansible automation platform 2.0 2.9.23-1.el8ap
  • ansible ansible engine 2.9, ansible engine 2 2.9.23-1.el7ae
  • ansible ansible engine 2.9, ansible engine 2 2.9.23-1.el8ae
  • ansible-test ansible engine 2.9, ansible engine 2 2.9.23-1.el7ae
  • ansible-test ansible engine 2.9, ansible engine 2 2.9.23-1.el8ae

red hat advisories RHBA-2021:2703RHSA-2021:2663RHSA-2021:2664

  • rhnlib Manager Client Tools 15-BETA 5.0.1-159000.6.30.1
  • ansible Manager Client Tools 15-BETA 2.9.27-159000.3.9.1
  • grafana Manager Client Tools 15-BETA 9.5.8-159000.4.24.1
  • mgr-push Manager Client Tools 15-BETA 5.0.1-159000.4.21.1
  • spacecmd Manager Client Tools 15-BETA 5.0.1-159000.6.42.1
  • python-hwdata Manager Client Tools 15-BETA 2.3.5-159000.5.13.1
  • python-pyvmomi Manager Client Tools 15-BETA 6.7.3-159000.3.6.1
  • dracut-saltboot Manager Client Tools Beta for SLE Micro 5, Manager Client Tools 15-BETA 0.1.1681904360.84ef141-159000.3.30.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2024:0196-1SUSE-SU-2022:3178-1SUSE-SU-2021:4152-1

  • 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

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 CBL-Mariner 2.0 2.12.1-1

azure linux advisories AZL-6305

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

  • ansible-core Arch Linux 2.11.3-1

arch linux advisories AVG-2260

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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-2021-3583 updated cvss 6.6

ansible: Template Injection through yaml multi-line strings with ansible facts used in template.

  • Red Hat Ansible Tower 3 ansible
    affected: no fix available
  • Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.0 for RHEL 8 ansible 2.9.23-1.el8ap
    fixed: vendor fix RHBA-2021:2703
  • Red Hat Ansible Engine 2 for RHEL 7 ansible 2.9.23-1.el7ae, ansible-test 2.9.23-1.el7ae Red Hat Ansible Engine 2 for RHEL 8 ansible 2.9.23-1.el8ae, ansible-test 2.9.23-1.el8ae
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2021:2664
  • Red Hat Ansible Engine 2.9 for RHEL 7 Server ansible 2.9.23-1.el7ae, ansible-test 2.9.23-1.el7ae Red Hat Ansible Engine 2.9 for RHEL 8 ansible 2.9.23-1.el8ae, ansible-test 2.9.23-1.el8ae
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2021:2663
  • Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.0 for RHEL 8 helm 3.3.4-2.el8at, tini 0.16.1-1.el8at, sshpass 1.06-3.el8ae, receptor 1.0.0-1.el8ap, dumb-init 1.2.5-1.el8ap, python-rq 1.7.0-2.el8pc, +231 more
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

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

Exploit prediction

0.90% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 59% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 7.1 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
NVD 2.0 3.6 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:N
GitHub 3.1 7.1 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
pypi ansible
<2.9.23rc1
>=2.10.0a1, <2.10.11rc1
>=2.11.0a1, <2.11.2rc1
<2.9.23
2.9.23rc1
2.10.11rc1
2.11.2rc1
2.9.23

Affected products

  • n/a ansible

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-20 Improper Input Validation
  • CWE-94 Improper Control of Generation of Code
  • CWE-77 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in a Command

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.