---
id: CVE-2026-11837
title: >-
  A local privilege escalation vulnerability was found in the ansible.posix
  authorized_key module
summary: >-
  A local privilege escalation vulnerability was found in the ansible.posix
  authorized_key module. The module's keyfile() function uses os.chown() instead
  of os.lchown() and opens files without O_NOFOLLOW when managing SSH authorized
  keys.…
severity: high
cvss: 7.3
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H'
cwe:
  - CWE-59
vendor: Red Hat
product: rhc-worker-playbook
affected:
  - rhc-worker-playbook (all versions)
  - rhel-system-roles
  - rhc-worker-playbook (all versions)
  - rhel-system-roles
  - rhc-worker-playbook (all versions)
  - rhel-system-roles
  - ansible-collection-ansible-posix (all versions)
  - ansible-collection-ansible-posix
published: '2026-06-10'
updated: '2026-09-09'
sourceUpdated: '2026-09-09T13:18:32.693'
source: NVD
sourceUrl: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-11837'
references:
  - url: 'https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-11837'
    label: secalert@redhat.com
  - url: 'https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2487424'
    label: secalert@redhat.com
  - url: 'https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-11837'
    label: 0b0ca135-0b70-47e7-9f44-1890c2a1c46c
  - url: 'https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2487424'
    label: 0b0ca135-0b70-47e7-9f44-1890c2a1c46c
  - url: >-
      https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-11837.json
    label: 0b0ca135-0b70-47e7-9f44-1890c2a1c46c
tags:
  - nvd
  - cve.org
  - exploit-available
ssvc:
  exploitation: none
  automatable: 'no'
  technicalImpact: total
  timestamp: '2026-06-10T13:57:35.655997Z'
epss: 0.00161
epssPercentile: 0.0453
exploits:
  github: 1
  githubRepos:
    - 'https://github.com/M8seven/cve-2026-11837-ansible-posix-authorized-key'
  checkedAt: '2026-09-26T09:05:37.344Z'
exploitAvailable: true
ingestedAt: '2026-09-08T18:07:34.884Z'
---

## Overview

A local privilege escalation vulnerability was found in the ansible.posix authorized_key module. The module's keyfile() function uses os.chown() instead of os.lchown() and opens files without O_NOFOLLOW when managing SSH authorized keys. An unprivileged local user can pre-stage symbolic links in their ~/.ssh directory to redirect file ownership changes to arbitrary system paths when an operator runs the authorized_key task as root, leading to local privilege escalation.

## Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.