Description (CNA)
A local privilege escalation vulnerability was found in the ansible.posix authorized_key module. The module's keyfile() function uses os.chown() instead of os.lchown() and opens files without O_NOFOLLOW when managing SSH authorized keys. An unprivileged local user can pre-stage symbolic links in their ~/.ssh directory to redirect file ownership changes to arbitrary system paths when an operator runs the authorized_key task as root, leading to local privilege escalation.
Affected (CNA)
| Vendor / product | Versions |
|---|---|
| Red Hat / Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10.0 Extended Update Support | unaffected 0:0.2.3-6.el10_0.2 before * |
| Red Hat / Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Advanced Mission Critical Update Support | unaffected 0:0.1.8-2.el8_6.1 before * |
| Red Hat / Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Extended Update Support Long-Life Add-On | unaffected 0:0.1.8-2.el8_6.1 before * |
| Red Hat / Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8 Telecommunications Update Service | unaffected 0:0.1.8-5.el8_8.1 before * |
| Red Hat / Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8 Update Services for SAP Solutions | unaffected 0:0.1.8-5.el8_8.1 before * |
| Red Hat / Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 | affected |
| Red Hat / Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 | unaffected |
| Red Hat / Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | affected |
| Red Hat / Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | unaffected |
| Red Hat / Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | affected |
| Red Hat / Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | unaffected |
| Red Hat / Red Hat OpenStack Platform 17.1 | affected |
| Red Hat / Red Hat OpenStack Platform 18.0 | unaffected |
CWE
CWE-59
References
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:79112
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:80508
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:82339
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-11837
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2487424
ADP enrichment
No English description supplied.
No references supplied.
A local privilege escalation vulnerability was found in the ansible.posix authorized_key module. The module's keyfile() function uses os.chown() instead of os.lchown() and opens files without O_NOFOLLOW when managing SSH authorized keys. An unprivileged local user can pre-stage symbolic links in their ~/.ssh directory to redirect file ownership changes to arbitrary system paths when an operator runs the authorized_key task as root, leading to local privilege escalation.