CVE-2020-1740
When a user executes "ansible-vault edit", another user on the same computer can read the old and new secret, as it is created in a temporary file with mkstemp and the returned file descriptor is closed and the method write_data is called to write the…
Does this matter?
Lower severity and a low EPSS score (0.36%). Track it; it rarely justifies an emergency change on its own.
Description
A flaw was found in Ansible Engine when using Ansible Vault for editing encrypted files. When a user executes "ansible-vault edit", another user on the same computer can read the old and new secret, as it is created in a temporary file with mkstemp and the returned file descriptor is closed and the method write_data is called to write the existing secret in the file. This method will delete the file before recreating it insecurely. All versions in 2.7.x, 2.8.x and 2.9.x branches are believed to be vulnerable.
- CVSS 3.1
- 4.7 MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
- EPSS
- 0.36% probability · 30th percentile
- Public exploits
- None in Exploit-DB
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-377, CWE-200
- Affected
- redhat/ansible · redhat/ansible tower · redhat/cloudforms management engine · redhat/openstack · debian/debian linux · fedoraproject/fedora
- Source
- secalert@redhat.com
EPSS 0.4% since 26 October 2026; no change recorded yet. Points are recorded when the score first appears and whenever it moves by a percentage point or more.
References
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2020-1740Issue Tracking, Vendor Advisory
- https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/67798Issue Tracking, Third Party Advisory
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/05/msg00005.htmlMailing List, Third Party Advisory
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/DKPA4KC3OJSUFASUYMG66HKJE7ADNGFW/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/MRRYUU5ZBLPBXCYG6CFP35D64NP2UB2S/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/WQVOQD4VAIXXTVQAJKTN7NUGTJFE2PCB/
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202006-11Third Party Advisory
- https://www.debian.org/security/2021/dsa-4950Third Party Advisory
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2020-1740Issue Tracking, Vendor Advisory
- https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/67798Issue Tracking, Third Party Advisory
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/05/msg00005.htmlMailing List, Third Party Advisory
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/DKPA4KC3OJSUFASUYMG66HKJE7ADNGFW/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/MRRYUU5ZBLPBXCYG6CFP35D64NP2UB2S/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/WQVOQD4VAIXXTVQAJKTN7NUGTJFE2PCB/
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202006-11Third Party Advisory
- https://www.debian.org/security/2021/dsa-4950Third Party Advisory
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.