VulnerabilityPublished 23 Sep 2026Updated 6 Nov 2026

CVE-2026-84720: Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.5 for RHEL 8 · Insecure Direct Object Reference

Affects Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.5 for RHEL 8Source CVE Database V5

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Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.5 Medium.

Data as of 7 Nov 2026, 11:40 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

6.5Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

Thin evidence

One scorer or none

CVSS scores by source
CNA (redhat)	CVSS 3.1	6.5

EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 19% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: None
Availability: None

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: Low: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide basic user capabilities that could normally affect only settings and files owned by a user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges may have the ability to cause an impact only to non-sensitive resources.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 23 Sep 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponized: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by 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 7 Nov 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponized: A Metasploit exploit module or Exploit-DB entry exists (Metasploit scanner modules do not count), or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.5 for RHEL 8automation-controller	Affected–	Fixed in–
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.5 for RHEL 9automation-controller	Affected–	Fixed in–
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.6 for RHEL 9automation-controller	Affected–	Fixed in–
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.6ansible-automation-platform-26/controller-rhel9	Affected–	Fixed in–
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.7ansible-automation-platform-27/controller-rhel9	Affected–	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

According to the Red Hat advisory, no mitigation is currently available that meets their criteria for ease of use, deployment, applicability, or stability. Users should monitor Red Hat's official advisories for updates. Until a fix is released, restricting access to the automation-controller and limiting authenticated user permissions may reduce exposure, but no official workaround is provided.

Description

CVE-2026-84720 is an information exposure vulnerability in Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.5's automation-controller. The WorkflowJobNode.ancestor_artifacts database column is queryable through the REST filter backend despite being omitted from the API serializer and intended to be masked by Ansible's no_log control. This allows a low-privileged or even zero-role authenticated user to recover secret values marked no_log by using response counts as an oracle. The flaw affects secret data propagated between workflow nodes, potentially across organizations.

Impact

An attacker with read access to a workflow or any authenticated user with no roles can exploit this vulnerability to recover secret values that were explicitly marked no_log by playbook authors. This leads to unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information across workflow nodes and potentially across organizational boundaries. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 6.5 (medium severity) with high confidentiality impact and no integrity or availability impact.

Summary

The vulnerability exists because the WorkflowJobNode.ancestor_artifacts database column, which stores raw merged set_stats artifacts between workflow nodes, is not wrapped in prevent_search(). This omission allows arbitrary field lookups via the REST filter backend, bypassing the API serializer's omission of this field. Since the column is persisted before Ansible's no_log masking is applied, users with read access or any authenticated user (via a regex lookup bypassing JSON cross-relation filter guards) can use the count of results as a boolean oracle to recover secret values character by character. The flaw is an authorization bypass through user-controlled keys and relates to open ORM traversal issues. The correct fix involves wrapping the field in prevent_search(), redacting no_log keys before persistence, and constraining generic relation-traversal filtering.

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 6 Nov 2026, 12:02 UTC

Technical details

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