CVE-2023-5115

Path Traversal in Redhat Ansible Automation Platform 1.2 … 2.4

Path Traversal

Published

18 December 2023

Modified

06 December 2024

Patch / advisory

View advisory

CVSS Score v3.1 6.3

Click a component to see what it means

Raw vector

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

EPSS Score 0.010 63th percentile

Risk Priority 50 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2023-5115 is a medium-severity Absolute Path Traversal (CWE-36) vulnerability in Redhat Enterprise Linux. Its CVSS base score is 6.3 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Data Obfuscation (T1001); ranked in the top 37% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-3236

Vulnerability Data

An absolute path traversal attack exists in the Ansible automation platform. This flaw allows an attacker to craft a malicious Ansible role and make the victim execute the role. A symlink can be used to overwrite a file outside of…

the extraction path.

CWE(s): CWE-36 CWE-22

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1001 Data Obfuscation Command And Control

Adversaries may obfuscate command and control traffic to make it more difficult to detect.

attack.mitre.org →

T1001.001 Junk Data Command And Control

Adversaries may add junk data to protocols used for command and control to make detection more difficult.

attack.mitre.org →

T1001.003 Protocol or Service Impersonation Command And Control

Adversaries may impersonate legitimate protocols or web service traffic to disguise command and control activity and thwart analysis efforts.

attack.mitre.org →

T1003.002 Security Account Manager Credential Access

Adversaries may attempt to extract credential material from the Security Account Manager (SAM) database either through in-memory techniques or through the Windows Registry where the SAM database is stored.

attack.mitre.org →

T1003.003 NTDS Credential Access

Adversaries may attempt to access or create a copy of the Active Directory domain database in order to steal credential information, as well as obtain other information about domain members such as devices, users, and access rights.

attack.mitre.org →

T1003.004 LSA Secrets Credential Access

Adversaries with SYSTEM access to a host may attempt to access Local Security Authority (LSA) secrets, which can contain a variety of different credential materials, such as credentials for service accounts.

attack.mitre.org →

Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-41082Same product: Debian Debian Linux

CVE-2023-50955Shared CWE-22, CWE-36

CVE-2024-7323Shared CWE-22, CWE-36

CVE-2023-5390Shared CWE-22, CWE-36

CVE-2024-29053Shared CWE-22, CWE-36

CVE-2023-34135Shared CWE-22, CWE-36

CVE-2018-20250Shared CWE-22, CWE-36

CVE-2026-32175Shared CWE-22, CWE-36

CVE-2025-8912Shared CWE-22, CWE-36

CVE-2024-20379Shared CWE-22, CWE-36

Affected Assets

redhat

ansible automation platform

1.2, 2.3, 2.4

redhat

ansible inside

1.1, 1.2

redhat

ansible developer

1.0, 1.1

debian

debian linux

10.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent

Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect

Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden

Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate

Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

V5.3.2

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

SI-10 Information Input Validation

addresses: CWE-22

Validates pathnames and filenames to prevent traversal outside intended directories.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-02 partial match

blocks

Patching/maintenance can remediate known path-traversal flaws in deployed software (partial prevention of exploitability) but does nothing to stop the coding defect from being introduced in the first place.

PR.PS-06 partial match

blocks

Secure SDLC practices directly require input validation and path sanitization that prevent absolute path traversal.

PR.AA-05 none match

blocks

PR.AA-05 defines and reviews access policies but does not address code-level pathname neutralization, so neither direction prevents CWE-22.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.5.14 Information transfer partial match

removes

A.5.15 Access control partial match

removes

A.5.16 Identity management partial match

removes

A.5.17 Authentication information partial match

removes

A.5.18 Access rights partial match

removes

A.8.10 Information deletion partial match

removes