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Fencer Vulns
high 7.8

CVE-2018-16837 json

Ansible Leaks Data Passed to ssh-keygen

published 2018-10-23 8 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also GHSA-hwrm-63v2-42g4 , PYSEC-2018-44 , EUVD-2018-0017

cvss
7.8
version 3.0, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.4%
EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 30%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Ansible "User" module leaks any data which is passed on as a parameter to ssh-keygen. This could lean in undesirable situations such as passphrases credentials passed as a parameter for the ssh-keygen executable. Showing those credentials in clear text form for every user which have access just to the process list.

Patch / fix

  • pypi ansible 2.5.11, 2.6.7, 2.7.1
  • ansible Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2.7.1+dfsg-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2018-16837

  • ansible Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 2.0.0.2-2ubuntu1.3
  • ansible Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 2.5.1+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2018-16837

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 openstack 14, openstack 13 2.6.11-1.el7ae
  • python-docker openstack 13 2.4.2-2.el7
  • python-manila openstack 13 1:6.0.2-5.el7ost
  • rhosp-release openstack 13 13.0.5-1.el7ost
  • os-apply-config openstack 13 8.3.1-0.20180831234255.be699ba.el7ost
  • python-novajoin openstack 13 1.0.22-1.el7ost
  • python2-ec2-api openstack 13 6.0.1-0.20181123223255.1e25260.el7ost
  • python2-tempest openstack 13 1:18.0.0-6.el7ost

red hat advisories RHSA-2019:0590RHSA-2019:0564RHSA-2018:3460RHSA-2018:3461RHSA-2018:3462RHSA-2018:3463

  • storm OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 8, OpenStack Cloud 8, HPE Helion OpenStack 8 1.2.3-3.6.1
  • ansible OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 8, OpenStack Cloud 8, HPE Helion OpenStack 8 2.9.14-3.15.1
  • grafana OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 8, OpenStack Cloud 8, HPE Helion OpenStack 8 6.7.4-4.12.1
  • ardana-mq OpenStack Cloud 8, HPE Helion OpenStack 8 8.0+git.1593618123.678c32b-3.26.1
  • ardana-nova OpenStack Cloud 8, HPE Helion OpenStack 8 8.0+git.1601298847.dd01585-3.42.1
  • crowbar-core OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 8 5.0+git.1600432272.b3ad722f0-3.44.1
  • python-kombu OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 8, OpenStack Cloud 8, HPE Helion OpenStack 8 4.1.0-3.7.1
  • ardana-cinder OpenStack Cloud 8, HPE Helion OpenStack 8 8.0+git.1596129856.263f430-3.43.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2020:3309-1

  • 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 15 SP3, openSUSE Leap 15.3 2.9.21-bp153.2.3.1
  • ansible Package Hub 15 SP1 2.8.1-bp151.3.3.1

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 3.8 2.5.11-r0
  • ansible Alpine 3.9 2.7.1-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2018-16837

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

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-2018-16837 updated cvss 7.8

Ansible: Information leak in "user" module

  • Red Hat Ceph Storage 2 ansible
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Ceph Storage 3 ansible Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10 (Newton) ansible Red Hat Storage 3 ansible
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Ansible Engine 2 for RHEL 7 ansible 2.7.1-1.el7ae
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:3462
  • Red Hat Ansible Engine 2.5 for RHEL 7 Server ansible 2.5.11-1.el7ae
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:3461
  • Red Hat Ansible Engine 2.6 for RHEL 7 Server ansible 2.6.7-1.el7ae
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:3460
  • Red Hat Ansible Engine 2.7 for RHEL 7 Server ansible 2.7.1-1.el7ae
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:3463
  • Red Hat OpenStack Platform 13.0 ansible 2.6.11-1.el7ae, python-docker 2.4.2-2.el7, python-manila 6.0.2-5.el7ost, rhosp-release 13.0.5-1.el7ost, openstack-manila 6.0.2-5.el7ost, python-novajoin 1.0.22-1.el7ost, +23 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:0564
  • Red Hat OpenStack Platform 14.0 ansible 2.6.11-1.el7ae
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:0590

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

0.36% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 30% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.0 7.8 CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.0 7.8 CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 2.1 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
GitHub 3.0 7.8 CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
pypi ansible
>=2.7.0a1, <2.7.1
>=2.6.0a1, <2.6.7
<2.5.11
>=2.7, <2.7.1
>=2.6, <2.6.7
2.7.1
2.6.7
2.5.11

Affected products

  • [UNKNOWN] Ansible

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-214 Invocation of Process Using Visible Sensitive Information
  • CWE-311 Missing Encryption of Sensitive Data

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns 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.