Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform automation-controller scm_url argument injection

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as very critical, has been found in Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown functionality of the component automation-controller. This manipulation of the argument scm_url causes argument injection. This vulnerability appears as CVE-2026-84502. The attack may be initiated remotely. There is no available exploit.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as very critical was found in Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform (affected version unknown). Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown functionality of the component automation-controller. The manipulation of the argument scm_url with an unknown input leads to a argument injection vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-88. The product constructs a string for a command to be executed by a separate component in another control sphere, but it does not properly delimit the intended arguments, options, or switches within that command string. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

A flaw was found in Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform's automation- controller. The Project scm_url field is not validated against values that begin with a dash and is stored and passed verbatim to the git SCM module. Because the module runs git ls-remote with the URL as a positional argument and without a "--" separator, a git project URL such as "--upload-pack=<command>:x" is interpreted by git as the --upload-pack option and executed via a shell. A user with permission to create or modify a project in a single organization can thereby execute arbitrary commands on the control-plane task pod, with output reflected through the project update stdout endpoint, leading to cross-tenant compromise and in-cluster lateral movement

It is possible to read the advisory at access.redhat.com. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-84502 since 09/01/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. The attack can be launched remotely. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $5k-$25k at the moment (estimation calculated on 09/23/2026). The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1059 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

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Productinfo

Type

• Automation Software

Vendor

• Red Hat

Name

• Ansible Automation Platform

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.redhat.com/

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