# CVE-2023-5189: Hub: insecure galaxy-importer tarfile extraction

> Attackers can overwrite files via malicious tarballs in Ansible Automation Hub, requiring patches for Red Hat Ansible and Satellite.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.3 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 14 Nov 2023
- **Updated:** 20 Nov 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-55g2-vm3q-7w52, PYSEC-2026-1401, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-5189

## What is CVE-2023-5189?

CVE-2023-5189 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in Redhat Satellite, published on 14 Nov 2023. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

A path traversal vulnerability exists in Ansible when extracting tarballs. An attacker could craft a malicious tarball so that when using the galaxy importer of Ansible Automation Hub, a symlink could be dropped on the disk, resulting in files being overwritten.

Weakness: CWE-22 (Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory), CWE-23 (Relative Path Traversal)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-5189?

3 open source packages ship an affected version, including galaxy-importer. It affects 2 products.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `galaxy-importer` | PyPI | All versions to 0.4.16 | None |
| `galaxy-importer` | PyPI | All versions to 0.4.16 | None |
| `galaxy-importer` | PyPI | All versions to 0.4.16 | None |

Products: Redhat Ansible Automation Platform, Redhat Satellite.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-5189?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-5189 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-5189 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Redhat Satellite

- [CVE-2021-4112](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-4112/): Privilege escalation in ansible-tower (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2023-4237](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-4237/): Platform: ec2_key module prints out the private key directly to the standard output (high 7.3)
- [CVE-2021-3583](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-3583/): Improper Input Validation and Command Injection in Ansible (high 7.1)
- [CVE-2025-9907](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-9907/): Event-driven-ansible: event stream test mode exposes sensitive headers in aap eda (medium 6.7)
- [CVE-2025-9908](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-9908/): Event-driven-ansible: sensitive internal headers disclosure in aap eda event streams (medium 6.7)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-5189 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-5189 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in Redhat Satellite, published on 14 Nov 2023. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-5189 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected packages and fixed versions:
- galaxy-importer (PyPI): affected all versions up to 0.4.16; no fix listed
- galaxy-importer (PyPI): affected all versions up to 0.4.16; no fix listed
- galaxy-importer (PyPI): affected all versions up to 0.4.16; no fix listed

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-2023-5189/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-5189/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-5189
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-5189
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-5189

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-5189/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.