# CVE-2020-10709: Auth bypass in Tower

> Attackers can obtain non-expiring OAuth2 refresh tokens, allowing persistent unauthorized access to Ansible Tower.

- **Severity:** High 7.1 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 27 May 2021
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-g252-frw3-5wcr

## What is CVE-2020-10709?

CVE-2020-10709 is a high-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Redhat Ansible Tower, published on 27 May 2021. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A security flaw was found in Ansible Tower when requesting an OAuth2 token with an OAuth2 application. Ansible Tower uses the token to provide authentication. This flaw allows an attacker to obtain a refresh token that does not expire. The original token granted to the user still has access to Ansible Tower, which allows any user that can gain access to the token to be fully authenticated to Ansible Tower. This flaw affects Ansible Tower versions before 3.6.4 and Ansible Tower versions before 3.5.6.

Weakness: CWE-613 (DEPRECATED: Insufficient Session Expiration), CWE-287 (Improper Authentication)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-10709?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Redhat Ansible Tower.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-10709?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-10709 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-10709 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-10709 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-2020-10709 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-10709 is a high-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Redhat Ansible Tower, published on 27 May 2021. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-10709 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-2020-10709/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-10709/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-10709
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-10709
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-10709

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-10709/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.