CVE-2026-123037 Ansible-core: user module generate_ssh_key follows a symlinked ~/.ssh enabling local privilege escalation (incomplete fix of cve-2024-9902)

Description

A flaw was found in the ansible-core user module. When generate_ssh_key is enabled, User.ssh_key_gen() guards the key files against symlinks but checks the ~/.ssh directory only with os.path.exists(). An unprivileged user on a managed node who replaces their ~/.ssh with a symlink to an existing root-writable directory causes the privileged module to write the generated key pair through the symlink and then chown both files to that user. Because such files can be dropped into directories processed by schedulers (e.g. /etc/cron.daily) or dynamic MOTD (/etc/update-motd.d), the user can escalate to root on the managed node. This is an incomplete fix of CVE-2024-9902.

Exploitable with local access to the machine, with an ordinary account and if a user takes an action; an attacker can seriously compromise confidentiality, integrity or availability.

Attack vector

Local

Attack complexity

High

Privileges required

Low

Interaction

Required

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

High

Integrity

High

Availability

High

Affected products and versions