CVE-2026-11837
HighCVSS 7.3Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk3th percentile - higher than 3% of all known CVEs
Summary
A local privilege escalation vulnerability was found in the ansible.posix authorized_key module. The 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.
Risk Assessment
An attacker can gain full system control by changing ownership of critical files (e.g., /etc/shadow, /etc/sudoers) to their user, enabling privilege escalation to root.
Recommendation
Immediately update the ansible.posix package to a version that fixes the keyfile() function (using os.lchown() and O_NOFOLLOW). Until updated, avoid running authorized_key tasks as root on systems with untrusted local users.
Original NVD description (English source)
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.