7.3highHigh

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 the metrics mean

  • It is requires local access to the machine.
  • For an attacker who can reach it, no special conditions are needed to exploit it.
  • To exploit it, an ordinary user account is needed.
  • Beyond that, someone has to be persuaded to take an action first.

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
2026-08-25
Sources
NVD

References