CVE intelligence and bounded remediation
CVE-2018-16859 — Redhat Ansible Engine security vulnerability
Execution of Ansible playbooks on Windows platforms with PowerShell ScriptBlock logging and Module logging enabled can allow for 'become' passwords to appear in EventLogs in plaintext. A local user with administrator privileges on the machine can view these logs and discover the plaintext password. Ansible Engine 2.8 and older are believed to be vulnerable.
- Severity
- Medium
- CVSS
- 4.4 (3.0)
- Published
- 2018-11-29
- CISA KEV
- Not currently listed
- Ecosystem
- windows/system
- Weaknesses
- CWE-532
Affected products
- redhat / ansible_engine
Showing 1 representative product identities from 4 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.
Matched remediation archetype
Information disclosure and sensitive data exposure
This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.
Check exposure
- Trace sensitive data through responses, errors, logs, metrics, traces, caches, exports, files, backups, and client bundles.
- Identify affected subjects, tenants, retention windows, access controls, and downstream copies without opening unnecessary sensitive records.
- Review metadata, timing, status, length, and existence signals as well as direct content disclosure.
Remediate safely
- Minimize collection and output, apply field-level authorization and redaction at a centralized boundary, and return generic external errors.
- Remove secrets and sensitive data from logs, artifacts, URLs, caches, and client-side bundles; rotate credentials that may have been exposed.
- Update the affected component and add synthetic-data tests for response, error, observability, and export paths.
Authoritative sources
Complete CVE record and remediation plan
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