Vulnerability · Published Sep 23, 2026 · Assigned by redhat
CVE-2026-84716Automation-controller: automation-controller: instance install_bundle issues 10-year, non-revocable receptor mesh-ca certificates for caller-chosen (and case-variant impersonating) hostnames
Medium 6.6
In plain English
A medium-severity security flaw in Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.5 for RHEL 8 from Red Hat. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.2% (higher than 7% of all known vulnerabilities).
Official 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.
Affected products (as reported)
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat | Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.5 for RHEL 8 | see references |
| Red Hat | Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.5 for RHEL 9 | see references |
| Red Hat | Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.6 for RHEL 9 | see references |
| Red Hat | Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.6 | see references |
| Red Hat | Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.7 | see references |
Weakness: CWE-266 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:N
References
- RHSA-2026:71113 vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- RHSA-2026:71114 vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- RHSA-2026:71177 vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- RHSA-2026:71179 vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-84716 vdb-entry, x_refsource_REDHAT
- RHBZ#2527199 issue-tracking, x_refsource_REDHAT