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MEDIUM

CVE-2020-1733

CVSS v3

5

MEDIUM

EPSS Score

0.4 %

exploit probability, as of 2026-10-19

CISA KEV

No

known exploited

Exploitation

—

SSVC status

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Affected and fixed versions

Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.

version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.

Packages

  • ansiblePyPIall versions · fixed in 2.7.17

Vendor advisories

  • CVE-2020-1733 Red Hat Product Security18 products fixed · 11 known affected

    ansible: insecure temporary directory when running become_user from become directive

    ansible.src as a component of Red Hat Ansible Tower 3 · ansible.src as a component of Red Hat Ceph Storage 2 · ansible.src as a component of Red Hat Ceph Storage 3

  • RHSA-2020:1543 Red Hat Product Security4 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: Ansible security and bug fix update (2.8.11)

  • RHSA-2020:1544 Red Hat Product Security2 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: Ansible security and bug fix update (2.7.17)

  • RHSA-2020:1542 Red Hat Product Security6 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: Ansible security and bug fix update (2.9.7)

  • RHSA-2020:1541 Red Hat Product Security6 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: Ansible security and bug fix update (2.9.7)

Full record on NVD

Description

A race condition flaw was found in Ansible Engine 2.7.17 and prior, 2.8.9 and prior, 2.9.6 and prior when running a playbook with an unprivileged become user. When Ansible needs to run a module with become user, the temporary directory is created in /var/tmp. This directory is created with "umask 77 && mkdir -p <dir>"; this operation does not fail if the directory already exists and is owned by another user. An attacker could take advantage to gain control of the become user as the target directory can be retrieved by iterating '/proc/<pid>/cmdline'.

Technical details

Published
2020-03-11

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-1733?

A race condition flaw was found in Ansible Engine 2.7.17 and prior, 2.8.9 and prior, 2.9.6 and prior when running a playbook with an unprivileged become user. When Ansible needs to run a module with become user, the temporary directory is created in /var/tmp. This directory is created with "umask 77 && mkdir -p <dir>"; this operation does not fail if the directory already exists and is owned by another user. An attacker could take advantage to gain control of the become user as the target directory can be retrieved by iterating '/proc/<pid>/cmdline'.

Is CVE-2020-1733 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2020-1733 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 0.4% on 2026-10-19, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2020-1733?

CVE-2020-1733 has a CVSS v3 base score of 5 (MEDIUM severity).

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