CVE-2025-14025: Ansible Automation Platform Auth Bypass

CVE-2025-14025 Overview

A significant authorization bypass vulnerability has been identified in Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform (AAP). The flaw exists in how read-only scoped OAuth2 API tokens are enforced across the platform. While the Gateway layer correctly enforces read-only restrictions for Gateway-specific operations, this enforcement fails to propagate to backend services including Controller, Hub, and Event-Driven Ansible (EDA). This allows attackers with read-only tokens to perform unauthorized write operations on these backend components.

Critical Impact

Attackers possessing read-only OAuth2 tokens can bypass intended access restrictions and perform write operations on backend services. The impact is bounded only by the attacker's existing role-based access controls (RBAC), potentially allowing unauthorized configuration changes, playbook modifications, or automation workflow manipulation.

Affected Products

• Ansible Automation Platform (AAP) - Gateway component
• Ansible Automation Platform Controller
• Ansible Automation Platform Hub
• Ansible Automation Platform Event-Driven Ansible (EDA)

Discovery Timeline

• January 8, 2026 - CVE-2025-14025 published to NVD
• January 8, 2026 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-14025

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability falls under CWE-279 (Incorrect Execution-Assigned Permissions), representing a fundamental breakdown in the authorization enforcement architecture of Ansible Automation Platform. The core issue lies in the inconsistent enforcement of OAuth2 token scopes across the platform's distributed service architecture.

When a user or service account is issued a read-only scoped OAuth2 token, the AAP Gateway correctly validates and enforces these restrictions for operations handled directly by the Gateway. However, when requests are forwarded to backend services such as Controller, Hub, or EDA, the read-only scope is not properly validated or enforced by these downstream components.

This architectural oversight creates a privilege escalation pathway where an attacker can leverage a legitimately obtained read-only token to perform write operations. The attacker's capabilities are limited only by their existing RBAC assignments, meaning a user with broad role assignments could potentially modify automation configurations, create or alter playbooks, or manipulate event-driven automation rules.

Root Cause

The root cause is an improper permission enforcement mechanism where the OAuth2 token scope validation occurs only at the Gateway level but fails to cascade to backend services. This creates a split-brain authorization model where the Gateway and backend services have inconsistent views of what operations a token should be permitted to perform. Backend services appear to trust Gateway-forwarded requests without independently validating the original token's scope restrictions.

Attack Vector

The attack requires network access and valid authentication credentials with at least a read-only OAuth2 token. An attacker would first obtain or be assigned a read-only scoped token, then craft API requests that bypass the Gateway's scope enforcement by directly targeting backend service operations. The high attack complexity stems from requiring understanding of the platform architecture and identifying which backend operations are vulnerable to this bypass.

Exploitation involves sending authenticated API requests with a read-only token to perform write operations on Controller, Hub, or EDA services. The attacker must construct requests that target backend service endpoints where scope validation is not enforced.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-14025

Indicators of Compromise

• Audit logs showing write operations (POST, PUT, DELETE, PATCH) performed using tokens that were issued with read-only scopes
• Unexpected configuration changes to Controller, Hub, or EDA without corresponding privileged token usage
• Discrepancies between Gateway access logs and backend service audit trails showing operations that should have been denied
• Unusual API activity patterns from service accounts or users typically restricted to read-only access

Detection Strategies

• Implement correlation rules between Gateway logs and backend service logs to identify scope enforcement bypasses
• Monitor for write operations from tokens or sessions that should only have read-only permissions based on issuance records
• Deploy API monitoring solutions to detect anomalous write activity from accounts with historically read-only access patterns
• Review OAuth2 token issuance and usage logs for tokens being used beyond their intended scope

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable comprehensive audit logging across all AAP components including Gateway, Controller, Hub, and EDA
• Configure alerting for any write operations performed by accounts or tokens designated as read-only
• Implement centralized log aggregation to facilitate cross-service correlation and scope violation detection
• Regularly audit RBAC assignments to identify accounts with excessive permissions that could amplify exploitation impact

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-14025

Immediate Actions Required

• Apply the latest security patches from Red Hat as documented in the security advisories
• Audit all existing OAuth2 tokens and revoke any that may have been compromised or used inappropriately
• Review RBAC assignments and implement principle of least privilege to minimize potential exploitation impact
• Increase monitoring and logging for API operations across all AAP components during the remediation period

Patch Information

Red Hat has released multiple security advisories addressing this vulnerability. Administrators should apply the appropriate patches based on their AAP deployment:

• RHSA-2026:0360 - Security update for Ansible Automation Platform
• RHSA-2026:0361 - Security update for Ansible Automation Platform
• RHSA-2026:0408 - Security update for Ansible Automation Platform
• RHSA-2026:0409 - Security update for Ansible Automation Platform

Additional details are available in the Red Hat CVE Details for CVE-2025-14025 and Red Hat Article.

Workarounds

• Implement network segmentation to restrict direct access to backend services, forcing all requests through the Gateway
• Revoke and regenerate OAuth2 tokens with appropriate scope restrictions after patching
• Temporarily disable API access for read-only tokens until patches can be applied in high-risk environments
• Strengthen RBAC policies to minimize the impact of any potential exploitation by reducing unnecessary permissions

# Review and audit OAuth2 tokens in AAP
# List all active OAuth2 tokens to identify those with read-only scopes
awx tokens list --all

# Revoke potentially compromised tokens
awx tokens delete --id <token_id>

# Audit recent API activity for unauthorized write operations
grep -E "POST|PUT|DELETE|PATCH" /var/log/tower/tower.log | grep "read-only-user"