CVE-2026-11837 HIGH

CVE-2026-11837: Ansible-collection-ansible-posix: ansible.posix authorized_key: local privilege escalation via symlink-following chown

Vendor Red Hat
Product Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
Weakness CWE-59
Published June 10, 2026
Last update June 30, 2026

CVSS base score

7.3/10
Attack vector Local
Attack complexity Low
Privileges required Low
User interaction Required
Confidentiality High
Integrity High

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

What the vulnerability does

01Description

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.

Key dates

02Disclosure timeline

June 10, 2026 CVE published
June 30, 2026 Record updated