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Critical severityNVD Advisory· Published Apr 24, 2018· Updated Aug 6, 2024

CVE-2016-9587

CVE-2016-9587

Description

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.

AI Insight

LLM-synthesized narrative grounded in this CVE's description and references.

Improper input validation in Ansible allows attackers on managed clients to execute arbitrary code on the Ansible server with server privileges.

Vulnerability

Ansible versions before 2.1.4 and 2.2.1 are vulnerable to an improper input validation flaw in the handling of data sent from client systems. Specifically, the ansible package fails to properly validate facts provided by managed hosts. An attacker who controls a client system managed by Ansible can send crafted facts back to the Ansible server, leading to arbitrary code execution on the server [1][2][3].

Exploitation

An attacker must have control over a client system that is managed by Ansible and have the ability to send facts back to the Ansible server. No special network position is required beyond that of a normal managed node. The attacker crafts malicious fact data and transmits it to the server during the normal fact-gathering phase of an Ansible playbook run. The server processes this input without proper sanitization, allowing the attacker's payload to be executed [1][2][3].

Impact

Successful exploitation allows the attacker to execute arbitrary code on the Ansible server with the privileges of the Ansible server process. This can lead to full compromise of the Ansible server and potentially all systems managed by it, as the server may have privileged access to other hosts. The impact includes confidentiality, integrity, and availability breaches [1][2][3].

Mitigation

Red Hat has released updated packages: ansible-2.1.4.0-1.el6ae and ansible-2.2.1.0-1.el6ae for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, as well as updates for Red Hat Storage Console 2 in RHSA-2017:0515. Users should upgrade to Ansible 2.1.4 or 2.2.1 or later. No workaround is available; patching is required. The vulnerability is not listed in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog as of this writing [1][3].

References
  1. https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017:0448
  2. NVD - CVE-2016-9587
  3. https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017:0515

AI Insight generated on May 22, 2026. Synthesized from this CVE's description and the cited reference URLs; citations are validated against the source bundle.

Affected packages

Versions sourced from the GitHub Security Advisory.

PackageAffected versionsPatched versions
ansiblePyPI
< 2.1.4.02.1.4.0
ansiblePyPI
>= 2.2.0.0, < 2.2.1.02.2.1.0

Affected products

176

Patches

0

No patches discovered yet.

Vulnerability mechanics

AI mechanics synthesis has not run for this CVE yet.

References

14

News mentions

0

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