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CVE-2020-10697· NVD / CVE Program· CNA redhat

A flaw was found in Ansible Tower when running Openshift.

A flaw was found in Ansible Tower when running Openshift. Tower runs a memcached, which is accessed via TCP. An attacker can take advantage of writing a playbook polluting this cache, causing a denial of service attack. This attack would not completely stop the service, but in the worst-case scenario, it can reduce the Tower performance, for which memcached is designed. Theoretically, more sophisticated attacks can be performed by manipulating and crafting the cache, as Tower relies on memcached as a place to pull out setting values. Confidential and sensitive data stored in memcached should not be pulled, as this information is encrypted. This flaw affects Ansible Tower versions before 3.6.4, Ansible Tower versions before 3.5.6 and Ansible Tower versions before 3.4.6.

MediumCVSS 4.4 · v3.1—No exploit No fix recorded
Published
May 27, 2021
Updated
Jun 16, 2026
EPSS
0.2% · 13th percentile
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Report tools

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Action score

17

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
17 / 40 · 4.4 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
0 / 30 · 0.2%

Affected systems

VendorProduct
redhatansible tower

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

  • redhat ansible towerbefore 3.4.6
  • redhat ansible tower3.5.0 and later · before 3.5.6
  • redhat ansible tower3.6.0 and later · before 3.6.4

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (redhat). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

  • n/a Tower

    • ansible_tower 3.6.4, ansible_tower 3.5.6, ansible_tower 3.4.6affected

Same product

redhat: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2018-16879Ansible Tower before version 3.3.3 does not set a secure channel as it is using the default insecure configuration channel settings for mess
    39Monitor
  • CVE-2018-1104Ansible Tower through version 3.2.3 has a vulnerability that allows users only with access to define variables for a job template to execute
    36Monitor
  • CVE-2018-10884Ansible Tower before versions 3.1.8 and 3.2.6 is vulnerable to cross-site request forgery (CSRF) in awx/api/authentication.py.
    35Monitor
  • CVE-2019-14890A vulnerability was found in Ansible Tower before 3.6.1 where an attacker with low privilege could retrieve usernames and passwords credenti
    33Monitor
  • CVE-2019-19340A flaw was found in Ansible Tower, versions 3.6.x before 3.6.2 and 3.5.x before 3.5.3, where enabling RabbitMQ manager by setting it with '-
    32Monitor
  • CVE-2016-7070A privilege escalation flaw was found in the Ansible Tower.
    32Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

No fix version is recorded for this entry. Check the references for vendor advisories.

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

EPSS, last 120 days

FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

No commit or PR link among the references.

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

No known public program.

Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).

Technical details

Attack conditions

  • Someone with local access to the system can trigger it.
  • A low-privileged account is enough.
  • No user action is required.
  • No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality
low · data can be read
Integrity
none
Availability
low · the service can be disrupted
Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality impact
Low
Integrity impact
None
Availability impact
Low

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-862 · Missing Authorization

CVSS vector

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

nvd-primary

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

Noroxi analysis

No Noroxi analysis for this record yet

We don't hand-write analysis for all 385,000+ vulnerabilities; that wouldn't be honest. For notable, high-impact vulnerabilities our team writes the mechanism, detection and remediation steps.

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Change log

No changes recorded on tracked fields yet. Score, KEV, exploit maturity and fix status changes appear here.

References

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records