# CVE-2026-123036: A flaw was found in ansible-core.


- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 5 Nov 2026
- **Updated:** 5 Nov 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2026-123036, ECHO-0e44-b933-b3fc, GHSA-v4rq-68gg-vw4c, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-123036

## What is CVE-2026-123036?

CVE-2026-123036 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Red Hat ansible-core, published on 5 Nov 2026. 

### Official description

A flaw was found in ansible-core. When a task marked `no_log: true` fails, the task result is censored before being emitted, but the `exception` field is retained because it is present in the PRESERVE allow-list in lib/ansible/_internal/_task.py, and the default stdout callback prints it through CallbackBase._handle_exception. As a result, sensitive values the operator explicitly asked to hide can be disclosed: module argument-validation errors echo the argument value, templating errors print an Origin source snippet (the failing line plus the two preceding lines of the variables file, exposing neighbouring secrets from an -e @secrets.yml file), and fail/assert messages are printed in full. Secret material supplied as extra variables or variables files can therefore leak to terminal output, CI logs, and the stdout logs of any automation wrapping ansible-playbook, even though every task touching the secrets is marked no_log: true. This is a regression introduced with the ansible-core 2.19 data-tagging/templating rework; the behaviour does not occur on 2.16, where the error text is correctly censored.

Weakness: CWE-209 (Generation of Error Message Containing Sensitive Information)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-123036?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-123036?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-123036 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-123036 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-123036 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-123036 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-123036 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Red Hat ansible-core, published on 5 Nov 2026. 
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-123036 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Red Hat ansible-core. 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-2026-123036/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-123036/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-123036
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-123036
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-123036

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-123036/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.