# CVE-2018-1101: Privilege escalation in Ansible Tower

> Organization administrators can reset system administrator passwords, gaining full system access and escalating privileges.

- **Severity:** High 7.2 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 2 May 2018
- **Updated:** 17 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-hfwp-5v2g-2vvc

## What is CVE-2018-1101?

CVE-2018-1101 is a high-severity vulnerability in Redhat Ansible Tower, published on 2 May 2018. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Ansible Tower before version 3.2.4 has a flaw in the management of system and organization administrators that allows for privilege escalation. System administrators that are members of organizations can have their passwords reset by organization administrators, allowing organization administrators access to the entire system.

Weakness: CWE-521 (Weak Password Requirements), CWE-266 (Incorrect Privilege Assignment)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-1101?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Redhat Ansible Tower, Redhat Cloudforms.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-1101?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2018-1101 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-1101 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Redhat Ansible Tower

- [CVE-2018-10884](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-10884/): Cross-site request forgery in ansible-tower (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2018-1104](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-1104/): Code injection in Ansible Tower (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2019-14890](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-14890/): Information disclosure in Tower (high 8.4)
- [CVE-2017-12148](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-12148/): Code injection in Ansible Tower (high 8.4)
- [CVE-2019-19340](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-19340/): Misconfiguration in Tower (high 8.2)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-1101 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-1101 is a high-severity vulnerability in Redhat Ansible Tower, published on 2 May 2018. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-1101 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Redhat Ansible Tower. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-1101/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-1101/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-1101
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-1101
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-1101

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-1101/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.