Overview
CVE-2025-14010 is a medium-severity vulnerability found in the ansible-collection-community-general collection. This flaw allows for the unintentional exposure of sensitive credentials, specifically plaintext passwords, through verbose output when running Ansible playbooks in debug modes. This information exposure could lead to unauthorized access to systems and services, potentially compromising Keycloak accounts or other administrative functions.
Technical Details
The vulnerability arises when Ansible playbooks, particularly those utilizing modules within the community.general collection, are executed with debug-level logging enabled (e.g., using the -v, -vv, or -vvv flags). In these debug modes, certain modules may inadvertently output the plaintext values of passwords or other sensitive credentials directly into the logs. An attacker gaining access to these logs can then extract these credentials and use them to gain unauthorized access.
CVSS Analysis
- CVSS Score: 5.5 (Medium)
A CVSS score of 5.5 indicates a medium severity vulnerability. While the exploit requires access to the logs, the potential impact of exposed credentials is significant. The vulnerability falls into the category of information disclosure, specifically the exposure of sensitive credentials.
Possible Impact
The successful exploitation of CVE-2025-14010 can have several serious consequences:
- Keycloak Account Compromise: Exposed credentials can be used to compromise Keycloak accounts, granting unauthorized access to protected resources and user data.
- Administrative Access: Compromised administrative credentials can provide attackers with full control over affected systems, allowing them to install malware, modify configurations, and exfiltrate data.
- Lateral Movement: Exposed credentials can be reused to access other systems within the network, leading to a broader compromise.
Mitigation and Patch Steps
- Update
ansible-collection-community-general: The primary mitigation step is to update theansible-collection-community-generalcollection to a version that addresses this vulnerability. Check the changelogs and release notes for the specific version that includes the fix. Use the Ansible Galaxy CLI tool to perform the upgrade. - Review Ansible Playbooks: Thoroughly review all Ansible playbooks to identify any tasks that might be outputting sensitive information in debug mode.
- Implement Secure Logging Practices: Implement robust logging practices that restrict access to log files. Employ access controls to ensure that only authorized personnel can view logs.
- Avoid Debug Mode in Production: Avoid running Ansible playbooks in debug mode in production environments. Debug mode should only be used during development and testing.
- Use Ansible Vault: Utilize Ansible Vault to encrypt sensitive data within playbooks. This prevents plaintext passwords from being stored directly in the playbook files.
- Implement Secret Management: Consider using a dedicated secret management solution (e.g., HashiCorp Vault) to securely store and manage sensitive credentials.
