A flaw was found in the ansible-core user module. When generate_ssh_key is enabled, User.ssh_key_gen() guards the key files against symlinks but checks the ~/.ssh directory only with os.path.exists(). An unprivileged user on a managed node who replaces their ~/.ssh with a symlink to an existing root-writable directory causes the privileged module to write the generated key pair through the symlink and then chown both files to that user. Because such files can be dropped into directories processed by schedulers (e.g. /etc/cron.daily) or dynamic MOTD (/etc/update-motd.d), the user can escalate to root on the managed node. This is an incomplete fix of CVE-2024-9902.
CVE-2026-123037
MEDIUMPre-NVD 6.76.7
EchelonGraph scoreHIGH confidence
“—” beside the score: it is equal to the CVSS score beside it.
Score 6.7 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: MODERATE) published 2026-11-06. A secondary CVSS source baseline 6.7; sources differ by 0.0.
Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: EPSS, GitHub Security Advisory, a secondary CVSS source
Also known asEUVD-2026-117890 (ENISA EUVD) · GHSA-cvj4-ggf5-jg54 (GitHub Security Advisories)Source: ENISA EUVD
6.7EG
EchelonGraph verdictMonitorRemediate within your standard update timelines (the SSVC decision on this page).
- Lower severity and no public exploit yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 0.1%CVSS: 6.7Exploit: None knownExposed services: Not assessed
A fix is available — apply it.
- CVSS v3
- 6.7
- EG Score
- 6.7MEDIUMhigh confidence
- EG Risk
- 30EG Risk 30/100
EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score. It fuses impact severity (EG Severity, the CVSS base score, never the KEV-floored or EPSS-lifted EG Score) with real-world exploitation and automatability, under weights EchelonGraph set by hand, so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner.
How it’s computed (value × EchelonGraph’s weight)Severity67% × 45%Impact severity (EG Severity): CVSS 6.7 of 10. Never the KEV-floored or EPSS-lifted EG Score.Exploitation0.1% × 40%FIRST EPSS: the 30-day exploitation probability when EchelonGraph scored this CVE.Automatability0% × 15%CISA's SSVC Automatable value: no (Vulnrichment).SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph): Track at low or medium mission impact; Track* at high (mission-essential systems).Exploitation none (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE.Action: A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines. - EPSS PROB
- 0.1%
- EPSS %ILE
- 1st
- KEV
- Not listed
What the EG score is made of (scorer v4.0: the three questions the 0–10 score mixes, published apart · methodology)
The EG score (6.7): severity, escalated by confirmed exploitation. This CVE's 6.7 is its impact severity (EG Severity), not escalated.
- EG Severity
- 6.7 MEDIUMCVSS-B, impact only: no KEV listing, EPSS or EG-KEV tier raises it.GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
- EG Likelihood
- 0.1% within 30 daysSource: FIRST EPSS (model v2026.06.15, score date 2026-11-06). FIRST's exploitation probability, not an EchelonGraph model.
- Confirmed exploitation
- None on record (CISA KEV, EG-KEV Tier 1)Reported apart from the likelihood: an observed fact, not a probability.
- EG Priority
- SSVC Track at medium mission impactTrack at low or medium mission impact; Track* at high (mission-essential systems).CISA BOD 26-04: 14 days if the affected system is publicly exposed; Fix on system upgrade if it is not.Each input and its source, and whom BOD 26-04 binds: the SSVC and BOD 26-04 blocks below.
SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph)Track at low or medium mission impact; Track* at high (mission-essential systems).
A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines.
Exploitation none (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE. Mission impact is CISA's Mission & Well-being decision point, and only you can judge it. CISA's table makes it high when Mission Prevalence is Essential — the vulnerable component "directly provides capabilities that constitute at least one MEF for at least one entity" (MEF: mission essential function) — or when Public Well-Being Impact is Irreversible: "multiple fatalities are likely", the cyber-physical system "is likely lost or destroyed", "extreme or serious externalities" are imposed on other parties, or social systems such as elections or the financial grid "are destabilized and potentially collapse". CISA's decision table
BOD 26-04 (CISA's remediation timeline, Table 1)14 days if the affected system is publicly exposed; Fix on system upgrade if it is not.
The score's inputs: In CISA KEV no (CISA's KEV catalog) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). Whether your system is publicly exposed is yours to answer. BOD 26-04 binds US Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies; for anyone else it is CISA's published timeline, a reference rather than an obligation. The directive · how EchelonGraph applies it
Published
November 6, 2026
Last Modified
November 6, 2026
Advisory Details (2)
Auto-updated Nov 6, 2026Patch available. Sources: redhat.
Red Hat
2567189 – (CVE-2026-123037) CVE-2026-123037 ansible-core: user module generate_ssh_key follows a symlinked ~/.ssh enabling local privilege escalation (incomplete fix of CVE-2024-9902)
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2567189Red HatMentions a patch (unverified)
CVE-2026-123037 - Red Hat Customer Portal
Affected: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 or OpenShift Container Platform 4, is affected by this vulnerability and a fix may be released to a
https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-123037Vendor Advisories for CVE-2026-123037(2)
These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.
Affected Packages
(3 across 3 ecosystems)
Debian:12(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fix by version range | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| ansible-core | 2.14.10-1 ... 2.22.0~beta2-1 (54 versions) |
| — |
Debian:13(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fix by version range | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| ansible-core | 2.19.0-1 ... 2.22.0~beta2-1 (19 versions) |
| — |
Debian:14(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fix by version range | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| ansible-core | 2.19.0-1 ... 2.22.0~beta2-1 (16 versions) |
| — |
Weakness Classification(1)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 6× in last 7d / 13× in last 30d)
Each row is a time one of our pipelines fetched, updated or re-scored this CVE. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed its CVE.org record (CNA or CISA ADP). An arrow marks a change the record states ("CVSS v3 → 9.1"); EPSS and GHSA rows show the values recorded at that time, not what changed (EPSS values are rounded; hover one for the exact figures). "EchelonGraph re-scored" is our own recompute of this CVE's score, not an update from a source, and is not counted in the refreshes above. Most recent first.
- 2026-11-13 16:50 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.1% · 1st percentile
- 2026-11-12 16:33 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.1% · 1st percentile
- 2026-11-11 16:38 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.1% · 1st percentile
- 2026-11-10 16:42 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.1% · 1st percentile
- 2026-11-08 16:38 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.1% · 1st percentile
- 2026-11-07 16:38 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.1% · 1st percentile
- 2026-11-06 19:28 UTCEchelonGraph re-scored
- 2026-11-06 19:28 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-cvj4-ggf5-jg54 · GitHub severity MODERATE · GitHub CVSS 6.7
- 2026-11-06 18:42 UTCEchelonGraph re-scored
- 2026-11-06 18:42 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-cvj4-ggf5-jg54 · GitHub severity MODERATE · GitHub CVSS 6.7
- 2026-11-06 18:28 UTCEchelonGraph re-scored
- 2026-11-06 18:28 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-cvj4-ggf5-jg54 · GitHub severity MODERATE · GitHub CVSS 6.7
- 2026-11-06 17:43 UTCEchelonGraph re-scored
- 2026-11-06 17:43 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-cvj4-ggf5-jg54 · GitHub severity MODERATE · GitHub CVSS 6.7
- 2026-11-06 16:36 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.1% · 1st percentile
- 2026-11-06 07:04 UTCENISA EUVD ID recordedEUVD-2026-117890 · Source: ENISA EUVD
- 2026-11-06 06:27 UTCEchelonGraph re-scored
- 2026-11-06 05:48 UTCEchelonGraph re-scoredFirst assessed: 6.7 MEDIUM
- 2026-11-06 05:47 UTCMITRE cvelistV5first tracked
Related CVEs(same product + same CWE)
Same product
10 shownDebian:12:ansible-core
Frequently asked(5)
What is CVE-2026-123037?
CVE-2026-123037 is a medium-severity vulnerability; its CVE record was published on November 6, 2026. A flaw was found in the ansible-core user module. When generate_ssh_key is enabled, User.ssh_key_gen() guards the key files against symlinks but checks the ~/.ssh directory only with os.path.exists(). An unprivileged user on a managed node who replaces their ~/.ssh with a symlink to an existing…
When was CVE-2026-123037 made public?
CVE-2026-123037 was made public on November 5, 2026: that is the date its CVE record's CNA, Red Hat, Inc., gives for when the vulnerability was made public. The CVE record itself was published on November 6, 2026. EchelonGraph's copy of the record carries a last-modified date of November 6, 2026; the record at its source may have been updated since.
Is CVE-2026-123037 actively exploited?
CVE-2026-123037 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 0.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days (1st percentile of EPSS-scored CVEs).
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-123037?
CVE-2026-123037 has a CVSS base score of 6.7 (a secondary CVSS source that NVD displays; NVD's own analysis pending).
How do I remediate CVE-2026-123037?
A fix for CVE-2026-123037 is available: update to the fixed version the vendor names in its advisory. The vendor advisories EchelonGraph has for CVE-2026-123037 are linked in the Vendor Advisories panel on this page.
Dependency Blast Radius
See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2026-123037
Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2026-123037?
EchelonGraph automatically scans your cloud infrastructure and maps CVE exposure using blast radius analysis.