CVE-2026-87874: Deserialization of Untrusted Data in Red Hat Red Hat Ceph Storage 5
Affects Red Hat Red Hat Ceph Storage 5Source CVE Database V5
Not known to be exploited · CVSS 8.1 High.
Data as of 10/24/2026, 22:16:05 UTC
- Exploitation
Not in CISA KEV, no exploitation reported
- EPSS
- 0.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 53% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HWhat to do
Affected software
| Product | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| Red HatRed Hat Ceph Storage 5 | Affected– | Fixed in– |
| Red HatRed Hat Ceph Storage 9 | Affected– | Fixed in– |
| Red HatRed Hat OpenStack Platform 17.1 | Affected– | Fixed in– |
| Red HatRed Hat OpenStack Platform 18.0 | Affected– | Fixed in– |
AI-suggested
Bind memcached to localhost only (127.0.0.1:11211) to prevent exposure across trust boundaries; this is the plugin's default setting. Never expose an unauthenticated memcached instance on the network. Prefer using the redis cache plugin or the jsonfile/yaml cache plugins, which use explicit JSON serialization, when a shared or remote fact cache is required. Treat any host with write access to the memcached fact cache as fully trusted to execute code on the controller.
Description
CVE-2026-87874 is a high-severity vulnerability in the memcached cache plugin of the community.general Ansible collection. The plugin incorrectly relies on python-memcached's pickling for serialization, which allows an attacker with network access to an unauthenticated memcached instance to execute arbitrary code on the Ansible controller via crafted pickle payloads. This issue requires a non-default insecure deployment exposing memcached across trust boundaries. Mitigations include binding memcached to localhost and using alternative cache plugins that use explicit JSON serialization.
Impact
Successful exploitation allows remote code execution on the Ansible controller without authentication, compromising confidentiality, integrity, and availability. However, exploitation requires network access to an unauthenticated memcached instance shared across trust boundaries, which is not the default configuration. If memcached is isolated to the controller (bound to localhost), there is no security impact.