CVE-2026-84691 is a vulnerability in Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
Published on September 23, 2026
Automation-controller: automation-controller-container: automation-controller: format string injection in the api 4xx error log setting discloses django secret_key and database credentials to an administrator
A flaw was found in Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform's automation-
controller. The setting that formats the log message emitted for API 4XX errors
is an administrator-controlled Python format-string template that is rendered
with a live user object as an argument. Because Python string formatting permits
attribute and item traversal on its arguments, an administrator can craft a
template that walks from the user object into the application settings and reads
the Django secret key and the database password. The formatted message is written
to a logger that can be forwarded to an external log aggregator, whose destination
is also administrator-controlled, allowing the secrets to be sent off the host. An
authenticated administrator can thereby obtain the master encryption key used to
protect all stored credentials and the database service password, enabling offline
decryption of every stored credential, forgery of user sessions, and direct
access to the controller database.
Vulnerability Analysis
CVE-2026-84691 can be exploited with network access, and requires user privileges. This vulnerability is considered to have a low attack complexity. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to have a high impact on confidentiality and integrity, and no impact on availability.
Timeline
Reported to Red Hat.
Made public. 22 days later.
Weakness Type
Use of Externally-Controlled Format String
The software uses a function that accepts a format string as an argument, but the format string originates from an external source.
Products Associated with CVE-2026-84691
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