CVE-2026-12701

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Last Modified: UTC

Important Important severity What does this mean?
9 CVSS v3 Score Breakdown

Description

A path traversal vulnerability was found in pulpcore. The relative_path_validator function only verifies that content paths do not begin with "/" but fails to block directory traversal sequences such as "../" anywhere in the path. An authenticated administrator can craft a relative_path containing embedded traversal sequences (e.g., "looking/normal/../../../../etc/shadow") that escapes the intended export directory during FilesystemExport operations. Because the file content is also user-controlled (uploaded artifact), this allows arbitrary file write to any location writable by the Pulp service user, potentially leading to service compromise or further system exploitation.

Statement

This vulnerability is rated as Important severity because an authenticated administrator can achieve arbitrary file write outside the intended export directory with fully attacker-controlled content. The FilesystemExport API is restricted to admin-level users (in Satellite, authenticated via SSL certificate; in standalone RBAC deployments, admin role only). The Pulp process runs as the "pulp" system user (not root), and file permission bits cannot be controlled by the attacker. However, the "pulp" user typically has write access to service-critical paths, and attack vectors such as cron.d entries (text-parsed, no exec bit required) or overwriting Pulp configuration remain viable depending on filesystem permissions and SELinux policy. Red Hat Satellite and Red Hat Ansible Automation Hub ship pulpcore and are affected. RHUI is not affected because end users do not have access to Pulp content creation APIs.

Mitigation

There is no complete mitigation for this vulnerability. The following measures can reduce risk:

1. If FilesystemExport was never configured on your deployment, you are not affected by this issue.
2. If FilesystemExporters exist in the database, audit them for path traversal sequences ("../"). Existing malicious entries must be cleaned up manually, as the validation functions documented to raise ValidationError do not actually do so in all code paths.
3. Restrict admin-level access to the Pulp API to only trusted operators. Review and audit which accounts have administrator privileges.
4. Ensure SELinux is in enforcing mode on Satellite/Pulp servers to limit the directories the Pulp service user can write to.
5. Monitor filesystem changes outside of expected Pulp directories for signs of exploitation.

Additional information

External References

Affected Packages and Issued Red Hat Security Errata

Unless explicitly stated as not affected, all previous versions of packages in any minor update stream of a product listed here should be assumed vulnerable, although may not have been subject to full analysis.

Products / Services Components State Errata
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2 python-pulpcore Not affected
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.5 for RHEL 8 python3.12-pulpcore Fixed This content is not included.RHSA-2026:42078
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.5 for RHEL 9 python3.12-pulpcore Fixed This content is not included.RHSA-2026:42078
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.6 ansible-automation-platform-26/hub-rhel9 Fixed RHSA-2026:42132
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.6 for RHEL 9 python3.12-pulpcore Fixed This content is not included.RHSA-2026:42079
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.7 ansible-automation-platform-27/hub-rhel9 Fixed RHSA-2026:42142
Red Hat Satellite 6.16 for RHEL 8 python-pulpcore Fixed RHSA-2026:42082
Red Hat Satellite 6.16 for RHEL 9 python-pulpcore Fixed RHSA-2026:42082
Red Hat Satellite 6.17 for RHEL 9 python-pulpcore Fixed RHSA-2026:42150
Red Hat Satellite 6.18 for RHEL 9 python3.12-pulpcore Fixed RHSA-2026:42151

Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details

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 Authorities (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications ).

CVSS v3 Score Breakdown

Red Hat NVD cve.org
CVSS v3 Base Score 9 N/A 9
Attack Vector Network N/A Network
Attack Complexity Low N/A Low
Privileges Required High N/A High
User Interaction None N/A None
Scope Changed N/A Changed
Confidentiality Impact Low N/A Low
Integrity Impact High N/A High
Availability Impact High N/A High

CVSS v3 Vector

Red Hat CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:H/A:H

cve.org CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:H/A:H

Red Hat CVSS v3 Score Explanation

AV:N - Pulp REST API is network-accessible. AC:L - No race conditions or special prerequisites; FilesystemExport is a standard feature (per CVSS 3.1 spec 2.1.2). PR:H - FilesystemExport restricted to admin-level users (SSL cert auth in Satellite, admin role in RBAC). UI:N - Attacker performs the full chain (content upload + export trigger). S:C - Vulnerable component is Pulp path validation; impacted component is the OS filesystem outside Pulp's export boundary (consistent with FIRST example CVE-2010-0467, Joomla directory traversal). C:L - Write primitive enables planting executable content (cron.d, Python modules) that runs with pulp user privileges and can read files, providing indirect but expected confidentiality impact. I:H - Attacker fully controls file path and content; any location writable by pulp user can be overwritten. A:H - Service disruption via config/data corruption (e.g., overwriting pulp settings, cron.d entries causing resource exhaustion).

Acknowledgements

Red Hat would like to thank Martin Brodeur (Independent security researcher) for reporting this issue.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is Red Hat's CVSS v3 score or Impact different from other vendors?

 For open source software shipped by multiple vendors, the CVSS base scores may vary for each vendor's version depending on the version they ship, how they ship it, the platform, and even how the software is compiled. This makes scoring of vulnerabilities difficult for third-party vulnerability databases such as NVD that only provide a single CVSS base score for each vulnerability. Red Hat scores reflect how a vulnerability affects our products specifically.

For more information, see https://access.redhat.com/solutions/762393.

My product is listed as "Under investigation" or "Affected", when will Red Hat release a fix for this vulnerability?
  • "Under investigation" doesn't necessarily mean that the product is affected by this vulnerability. It only means that our Analysis Team is still working on determining whether the product is affected and how it is affected.
  • "Affected" means that our Analysis Team has determined that this product is affected by this vulnerability and might release a fix to address this in the near future.

What can I do if my product is listed as "Will not fix"?

 A "will not fix" status means that a fix for an affected product version is not planned or not possible due to complexity, which may create additional risk.

Available options depend mostly on the Impact of the vulnerability and the current Life Cycle phase of your product. Overall, you have the following options:
  • Upgrade to a supported product version that includes a fix for this vulnerability (recommended).
  • Apply a mitigation (if one exists).
  • Open a This content is not included.support case to request a prioritization of releasing a fix for this vulnerability.

What can I do if my product is listed as "Fix deferred"?

 A deferred status means that a fix for an affected product version is not guaranteed due to higher-priority development work.

Available options depend mostly on the Impact of the vulnerability and the current Life Cycle phase of your product. Overall, you have the following options:
  • Apply a mitigation (if one exists).
  • Open a This content is not included.support case to request a prioritization of releasing a fix for this vulnerability.
  • Red Hat Engineering focuses on addressing high-priority issues based on their complexity or limited lifecycle support. Therefore, lower-priority issues will not receive immediate fixes.

What is a mitigation?

 A mitigation is an action that can be taken to reduce the impact of a security vulnerability, without deploying any fixes.

I have a Red Hat product but it is not in the above list, is it affected?

 The listed products were found to include one or more of the components that this vulnerability affects. These products underwent a thorough evaluation to determine their affectedness by this vulnerability. Note that layered products (such as container-based offerings) that consume affected components from any of the products listed in this table may be affected and are not represented.

Why is my security scanner reporting my product as vulnerable to this vulnerability even though my product version is fixed or not affected?

 In order to maintain code stability and compatibility, Red Hat usually does not rebase packages to entirely new versions. Instead, we backport fixes and new features to an older version of the package we distribute. This can result in some security scanners that only consider the package version to report the package as vulnerable. To avoid this, we suggest that you use an approved vulnerability scanner from our This content is not included.Red Hat Vulnerability Scanner Certification program.

My product is listed as "Out of Support Scope". What does this mean?

 When a product is listed as "Out of Support Scope", it means a vulnerability with the impact level assigned to this CVE is no longer covered by its current support lifecycle phase. The product has been identified to contain the impacted component, but analysis to determine whether it is affected or not by this vulnerability was not performed. The product should be assumed to be affected. Customers are advised to apply any mitigation options documented on this page, consider removing or disabling the impacted component, or upgrade to a supported version of the product that has an update available.