Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
Older Ansible could treat data returned by lookup plugins as trusted template content. If an attacker could influence that returned data, Ansible might evaluate it through Jinja2 and allow code execution. Business risk is concentrated in automation pipelines that ingest untrusted or externally controlled lookup data.
Executive priority
Schedule remediation with normal vulnerability management priority, raising urgency for automation systems that process untrusted data or manage sensitive production infrastructure. This is not documented as actively exploited, but code execution in automation tooling can have broad operational impact.
Technical view
CVE-2017-7481 is improper input handling in Ansible lookup() results before fixed 2.3.1.0 and 2.4.0.0 lines. Lookup plugin output was not marked unsafe, allowing attacker-controlled Unicode strings to be parsed by Jinja2. CVSS 3.0 is 5.3 with high attack complexity and high integrity impact.
Likely exposure
Likely exposed environments are legacy Ansible installations used in CI/CD, orchestration, or configuration management where playbooks call lookup() against attacker-influenced files, services, inventories, or external data sources.
Exploitation context
The source bundle does not show CISA KEV listing or cited evidence of active exploitation. Exploitation requires control over lookup() results and a playbook path that evaluates them, so risk depends heavily on local automation design and data trust boundaries.
Researcher notes
Key evidence is the CVE description, vendor advisories, and upstream Ansible commit. The bundle’s affected-version field is less precise than the description; validate exact package status against the operating system vendor advisory before declaring exposure or closure.
Mitigation direction
- Upgrade Ansible using the relevant Red Hat, Ubuntu, or Debian vendor security advisory.
- Prioritize systems running Ansible before fixed 2.3.1.0 or 2.4.0.0 lines.
- Review playbooks that use lookup() with external or user-controlled data sources.
- Treat lookup-derived data as untrusted unless vendor-fixed behavior is confirmed.
- Check vendor guidance if packaged Ansible versions differ from upstream numbering.
Validation and detection
- Inventory Ansible versions across automation servers, CI runners, and administrator workstations.
- Identify playbooks and roles using lookup() against external or writable data sources.
- Confirm installed packages include the vendor security update for CVE-2017-7481.
- Regression test representative playbooks to ensure lookup data is not template-evaluated unexpectedly.
- Review automation logs for unusual playbook behavior around affected lookup workflows.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-20: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupExecution behavior lookup
The CVE wording references code or command execution, so execution technique review may help defensive triage. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2017-7481 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Medium
- CVSS
- 5.3 (3.0)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N1.63.6Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.0 score
5.3MediumVector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- RHSA-2017:1599CVE reference · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2017-7481CVE reference · x_refsource_CONFIRM
- RHSA-2017:1334CVE reference · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://github.com/ansible/ansible/commit/ed56f51f185a1ffd7ea57130d260098686fcc7c2CVE reference · x_refsource_CONFIRM
- RHSA-2017:1244CVE reference · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- RHSA-2017:1499CVE reference · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- RHSA-2017:2524CVE reference · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- RHSA-2017:1476CVE reference · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- USN-4072-1CVE reference · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_UBUNTU
- [debian-lts-announce] 20210127 [SECURITY] [DLA 2535-1] ansible security updateCVE reference · mailing-list, x_refsource_MLIST
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Improper Input Validation
Improper Input Validation represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.