7.3High
CVE-2026-11837
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.
What this means for your business
- An attacker can use it only with access to the machine itself, with an ordinary user login, but only after tricking someone into an action such as opening a file or a link.
- FIRST's prediction model gives it a 0.2% chance of attack attempts being seen in the next 30 days, ranking above 5% of all known flaws.
What to do
- 1Ask your IT team or provider whether any of your systems use the affected product.
- 2If you do, follow the vendor's guidance. No patch reference has been published yet.
Not sure if your company is exposed?
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Scoring
- CVSS
- 7.3 (v3.1)
- Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H- Weakness
- CWE-59
- Assigned by
- secalert@redhat.com
Dates
- Published
- 2026-06-10
- Last modified
- 2026-09-09
- Sources
- NVD