8.7High

CVE-2026-84691

A flaw was found in Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform's automation- controller. The setting that formats the log message emitted for API 4XX errors is an administrator-controlled Python format-string template that is rendered with a live user object as an argument. Because Python string formatting permits attribute and item traversal on its arguments, an administrator can craft a template that walks from the user object into the application settings and reads the Django secret key and the database password. The formatted message is written to a logger that can be forwarded to an external log aggregator, whose destination is also administrator-controlled, allowing the secrets to be sent off the host. An authenticated administrator can thereby obtain the master encryption key used to protect all stored credentials and the database service password, enabling offline decryption of every stored credential, forgery of user sessions, and direct access to the controller database.

What this means for your business

  • An attacker can use it remotely, over a network, with an administrator login, and without anyone at your company clicking anything.
  • FIRST's prediction model gives it a 0.2% chance of attack attempts being seen in the next 30 days, ranking above 8% of all known flaws.

What to do

  1. 1Ask your IT team or provider whether any of your systems use the affected product.
  2. 2If you do, follow the vendor's guidance. No patch reference has been published yet.

Fastnexa security experts

Not sure if your company is exposed to CVE-2026-84691?

Tell us where you run the affected software and a Fastnexa penetration tester will check whether this flaw, or others like it, can be used against your websites, apps and network.

The full test is free for our first 10 founding clients until 31 December 2026. See the offer

Book a 30-min callWhatsApp us

Think you’ve already been hit? Don’t wait on a form: call or WhatsApp +1 (732) 454 2616. We reply within 1 hour, 24/7. Emergency help →

Scoring

CVSS
8.7 (v3.1)
Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N
Weakness
CWE-134
Assigned by
secalert@redhat.com

Dates

Published
2026-09-23
Last modified
2026-09-24
Sources
NVD

References