Vulnerability · Published Sep 21, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M
CVE-2026-55074Ansible FreeBSD Jail Connection Plugin: Jail escape via symlink following in put_file (host-side root mv)
High 8.2
In plain English
A high-severity security flaw in ansible_jailexec from chofstede. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.4% (higher than 39% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
Official description
Ansible FreeBSD Jail Connection Plugin is an Ansible connection plugin for FreeBSD Jails via jexec. Through version 1.3.0, the jailexec connection plugin's put_file resolved a transfer's destination to a path on the jail host ( + ) and ran mkdir -p and mv there as root on the host. Those commands follow symbolic links, and the path was operated on outside the jail, so a symlink existing inside the jail was followed by the host-side, root-privileged mv. A party controlling content inside a managed jail (the jail's root, or any process able to create a symlink in a directory an Ansible task later writes to) can therefore cause an arbitrary root-owned write on the host, outside the jail — a full jail escape. Arbitrary root-owned host writes are readily escalated to host compromise (e.g. cron, rc.d, authorized_keys). Preconditions for this vulnerability are that the operator runs a copy/template/fetch-style task (anything using put_file) against the jail, and the attacker can place a symlink inside the jail at or above the task's destination before the transfer runs. This issue has been fixed in version 2.0.0.
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| PyPI | ansible-jailexec | 2.0.0 | GHSA-cxgv-hp74-jj7r |
| PyPI | ansible-jailexec | 2.0.0 | PYSEC-2026-3658 |
Affected products (as reported)
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| chofstede | ansible_jailexec | < 2.0.0 |
Weakness: CWE-59 · Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
References
- https://github.com/chofstede/ansible_jailexec/security/advisories/GHSA-cxgv-hp74-jj7r x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://github.com/chofstede/ansible_jailexec/pull/6 x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/chofstede/ansible_jailexec/commit/6e80eecb2db7aebd1258fded6ae5c3aba1dd4123 x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/chofstede/ansible_jailexec/blob/main/docs/security/advisory-2.0.0-jail-escape.md x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/chofstede/ansible_jailexec/releases/tag/v2.0.0 x_refsource_MISC