CVE-2026-84716
Received
Received - Intake
Certificate Authority Spoofing in Ansible Automation Controller
Vulnerability report for CVE-2026-84716, including description, CVSS score, EPSS score, affected products, exploitability, helpful resources, and attack-flow context.
Publication date: 2026-09-23
Last updated on: 2026-09-23
Assigner: redhat-SADP
Description
Description
A flaw was found in the automation-controller instance
install-bundle endpoint. When a System Administrator downloads
an execution/hop node's install bundle, the controller signs an
X.509 certificate with the receptor mesh certificate authority
in which the Common Name, DNS subject-alternative-name, and
receptor node-id are taken verbatim from the caller-chosen
instance hostname, with a hard-coded ten-year validity, a random
serial, and no issuance log or revocation list. Because the
hostname charset validator is case-insensitive while the
uniqueness validator is case-sensitive, an administrator can
register a case variant of an existing control node's hostname
and obtain a mesh-CA-signed certificate that TLS peers, which
match hostnames case-insensitively, accept as that control node.
In managed/hosted deployments — where the customer holds
controller superuser but the platform operator runs the mesh —
this yields a long-lived, non-revocable mesh peer credential and,
with an on-path position, TLS impersonation or interception of
control/hybrid mesh nodes. It does not grant direct remote code
execution, because receptor work submission is gated by a
separate signing key not included in the bundle.
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
| Probability: | |
| Percentile: |
Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
| Vendor | Product | Version / Range |
|---|---|---|
| redhat | automation_controller | * |
| red_hat | ansible_automation_platform | From 2.6 (inc) |
| red_hat | ansible_automation_platform | From 2.5 (inc) |
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
KEV
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-266 | A product incorrectly assigns a privilege to a particular actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor. |
