CVE-2025-14010 identifies a vulnerability in the ansible-collection-community-general component used within Red Hat Ceph Storage 5 environments. The flaw manifests when Ansible automation runs with debug or verbose output enabled, causing sensitive credentials, specifically plaintext passwords, to be exposed in logs. This exposure occurs because debug modes output detailed information, including secrets, which should normally be redacted or protected. An attacker who can access these logs—either through local access or via compromised systems with log access—can retrieve these plaintext credentials. These credentials may include those for Keycloak identity management or administrative accounts, potentially allowing unauthorized access to critical systems. The vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 score of 5.5, reflecting medium severity, with an attack vector requiring local or adjacent access (AV:L), low complexity (AC:L), and low privileges (PR:L). No user interaction is needed (UI:N), and the impact is primarily on confidentiality (C:H), with no impact on integrity or availability. No known exploits have been reported in the wild yet, but the risk remains significant due to the sensitive nature of the leaked information. The vulnerability highlights the risk of verbose logging in production environments and the need for strict log access controls.

For European organizations, the exposure of plaintext credentials through debug logs can lead to unauthorized access to identity management systems like Keycloak and administrative interfaces, potentially resulting in data breaches, privilege escalation, and lateral movement within networks. This risk is particularly acute for organizations relying on Red Hat Ceph Storage 5 for scalable storage solutions and using Ansible for automation, as these are common in enterprise and cloud environments. Compromise of Keycloak accounts can undermine authentication and authorization controls, affecting multiple applications and services. The confidentiality breach could lead to regulatory non-compliance under GDPR, resulting in legal and financial consequences. Additionally, the need to investigate and remediate such exposures can disrupt operations and increase incident response costs.

To mitigate CVE-2025-14010, organizations should immediately audit their Ansible automation workflows and disable verbose or debug logging modes in production environments to prevent sensitive data from being output to logs. Access to logs must be strictly controlled using role-based access controls and encrypted storage to prevent unauthorized retrieval of sensitive information. Organizations should monitor for any unusual access patterns to log repositories and implement alerting mechanisms. Applying any patches or updates provided by Red Hat as soon as they become available is critical. Additionally, rotating any potentially exposed credentials, especially those related to Keycloak or administrative accounts, is recommended. Implementing secrets management solutions that avoid embedding plaintext passwords in playbooks or logs can further reduce risk. Finally, educating DevOps and security teams about the risks of verbose logging and secure handling of credentials in automation pipelines is essential.