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VulnerabilityPublished

CVE-2026-55074: Ansible jailexec · Ansible FreeBSD Jail Connection Plugin: Jail escape via symlink following in put_file (host-side root mv)

Affects ansible-jailexecSource GCVE Database

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Authoritative record:CVE-2026-55074· High 8.2

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 8.2 High : upgrade to 2.0.0 soon.

Data as of 12 Nov 2026, 23:24 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score
8.2High
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.
EPSS
0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 38% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch
Available – fixed in 2.0.0
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 21 Sep 2026

  2. Detectable: no evidence on record.

    No public nuclei template indexed

  3. Weaponized: no evidence on record.

    No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB

  4. Exploited in the wild: no evidence on record.

    Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation

  5. Observed by OffSeq Mirage: no evidence on record.

    No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 13 Nov 2026.

What to do

Upgrade ansible-jailexec to 2.0.0.

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
PyPIansible-jailexecAffected
  • <2.0.0
Fixed in
  • 2.0.0

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

This vulnerability is fixed in Ansible jailexec version 2.0.0. Operators should upgrade to version 2.0.0 or later to remediate this issue. Until upgraded, avoid running put_file tasks against jails where untrusted users can create symbolic links in the target directories. Patch status is confirmed as a fix available in version 2.0.0.

Description

Ansible FreeBSD Jail Connection Plugin is an Ansible connection plugin for FreeBSD Jails via jexec. Through version 1.3.0, the jailexec connection plugin's put_file resolved a transfer's destination to a path on the jail host ( + ) and ran mkdir -p and mv there as root on the host. Those commands follow symbolic links, and the path was operated on outside the jail, so a symlink existing inside the jail was followed by the host-side, root-privileged mv. A party controlling content inside a managed jail (the jail's root, or any process able to create a symlink in a directory an Ansible task later writes to) can therefore cause an arbitrary root-owned write on the host, outside the jail — a full jail escape. Arbitrary root-owned host writes are readily escalated to host compromise (e.g. cron, rc.d, authorized_keys). Preconditions for this vulnerability are that the operator runs a copy/template/fetch-style task (anything using put_file) against the jail, and the attacker can place a symlink inside the jail at or above the task's destination before the transfer runs. This issue has been fixed in version 2.0.0.

References

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