CVE-2026-84691

/// Technical 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.

/// Remediation

Check the references section for vendor advisories, patches, and mitigation guidance. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.

/// References