CVE-2026-84718
Description
A flaw was found in the Ansible Automation Platform automation-controller. In the shipped production configuration, the Controller trusts the client-supplied X-Forwarded-For header as the request's client IP without verifying that it originated from a trusted proxy, and selects the leftmost (attacker-controlled) header value. As a result, an attacker can forge the source IP address recorded for their requests in the Controller's audit and access logs, degrading the integrity of forensic and SIEM attribution. The flaw does not grant additional access.
Statement
This flaw is an audit/forensic integrity weakness: an attacker can spoof the client IP recorded in automation-controller's audit and access logs by supplying an X-Forwarded-For header, which Controller trusts unconditionally in its shipped production configuration. It does not disclose information and does not grant additional access; confidentiality and availability are not affected and the integrity impact is limited to the source-IP field of log records. Note that merely populating PROXY_IP_ALLOWED_LIST does not fully resolve the issue in an Envoy-append deployment, because the leftmost (attacker-controlled) X-Forwarded-For entry is still selected; the robust fix uses the existing trusted-proxy shared-secret mechanism (preferring the trusted rightmost entry) and/or selects the rightmost entry rather than the leftmost.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 4.3 | N/A | 4.3 |
| Attack Vector | Network | N/A | Network |
| Attack Complexity | Low | N/A | Low |
| Privileges Required | Low | N/A | Low |
| User Interaction | None | N/A | None |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | None | N/A | None |
| Integrity Impact | Low | N/A | Low |
| Availability Impact | None | N/A | None |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Access Control
Technical Impact: Bypass Protection Mechanism; Gain Privileges or Assume Identity
An attacker could utilize the untrusted data source to bypass protection mechanisms and gain access to sensitive data.
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