Description
A flaw was found in Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform's automation-
controller. The setting that formats the log message emitted for API 4XX errors
is an administrator-controlled Python format-string template that is rendered
with a live user object as an argument. Because Python string formatting permits
attribute and item traversal on its arguments, an administrator can craft a
template that walks from the user object into the application settings and reads
the Django secret key and the database password. The formatted message is written
to a logger that can be forwarded to an external log aggregator, whose destination
is also administrator-controlled, allowing the secrets to be sent off the host. An
authenticated administrator can thereby obtain the master encryption key used to
protect all stored credentials and the database service password, enabling offline
decryption of every stored credential, forgery of user sessions, and direct
access to the controller database.
Published: 2026-09-23
Score: 8.7 High
EPSS: n/a
KEV: No
Impact: n/a
Action: n/a
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Remediation

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History

Wed, 23 Sep 2026 19:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description A flaw was found in Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform's automation- controller. The setting that formats the log message emitted for API 4XX errors is an administrator-controlled Python format-string template that is rendered with a live user object as an argument. Because Python string formatting permits attribute and item traversal on its arguments, an administrator can craft a template that walks from the user object into the application settings and reads the Django secret key and the database password. The formatted message is written to a logger that can be forwarded to an external log aggregator, whose destination is also administrator-controlled, allowing the secrets to be sent off the host. An authenticated administrator can thereby obtain the master encryption key used to protect all stored credentials and the database service password, enabling offline decryption of every stored credential, forgery of user sessions, and direct access to the controller database.
Title Automation-controller: automation-controller-container: automation-controller: format string injection in the api 4xx error log setting discloses django secret_key and database credentials to an administrator
First Time appeared Redhat
Redhat ansible Automation Platform
Weaknesses CWE-134
CPEs cpe:/a:redhat:ansible_automation_platform:2
Vendors & Products Redhat
Redhat ansible Automation Platform
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 8.7, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N'}


Subscriptions

Redhat Ansible Automation Platform
cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: redhat

Published:

Updated: 2026-09-23T19:30:12.698Z

Reserved: 2026-09-01T23:02:09.581Z

Link: CVE-2026-84691

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

No data.

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

No data.

Weaknesses