# CVE-2026-123037: A flaw was found in the ansible-core user module.


- **Severity:** Medium 6.7 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 6 Nov 2026
- **Updated:** 6 Nov 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-113113, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-123037, ECHO-c3a5-5f6a-71f1, GHSA-cvj4-ggf5-jg54, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-123037

## What is CVE-2026-123037?

CVE-2026-123037 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Red Hat Migration Toolkit for Applications 8, published on 6 Nov 2026. 

### Official description

A flaw was found in the ansible-core user module. When generate_ssh_key is enabled, User.ssh_key_gen() guards the key files against symlinks but checks the ~/.ssh directory only with os.path.exists(). An unprivileged user on a managed node who replaces their ~/.ssh with a symlink to an existing root-writable directory causes the privileged module to write the generated key pair through the symlink and then chown both files to that user. Because such files can be dropped into directories processed by schedulers (e.g. /etc/cron.daily) or dynamic MOTD (/etc/update-motd.d), the user can escalate to root on the managed node. This is an incomplete fix of CVE-2024-9902.

Weakness: CWE-59 (Improper Link Resolution Before File Access)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-123037?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-123037?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-123037 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-123037 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-123037 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-123037 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-123037 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Red Hat Migration Toolkit for Applications 8, published on 6 Nov 2026. 
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-123037 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Red Hat Migration Toolkit for Applications 8. 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-2026-123037/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-123037/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-123037
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-123037
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-123037

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-123037/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.