# CVE-2021-3533: PYSEC-2021-126 - A flaw was found in Ansible if an ansible user sets ANSIBLE_ASYNC_DIR to a subdirectory of a world…

Source: https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2021-3533-pysec-2021-126-a-flaw-was-found-in-ansible-if-an-ansible-user-sets  
Publisher: Junglewise Threat Intelligence, https://junglewise.ai/threats  
Published: 2021-06-09  
License: CC BY 4.0 with a link back

CVE-2021-3533 · Severity: info · Published 2021-06-09

A flaw was found in Ansible if an ansible user sets ANSIBLE_ASYNC_DIR to a subdirectory of a world writable directory. When this occurs, there is a race condition on the managed machine. A malicious, non-privileged account on the remote machine can exploit the race condition to access the async result data. This flaw affects Ansible Tower 3.7 and Ansible Automation Platform 1.2.

Technologies: [ansible (PyPI)](https://junglewise.ai/threats/technologies/ansible). Vendors: [PyPI](https://junglewise.ai/threats/vendors/pypi).

## Quick answers

**Is CVE-2021-3533 exploited in the wild?** No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2021-3533 being exploited in the wild.

**How severe is CVE-2021-3533?** Informational severity, published 9 June 2021.

**Which products and versions are affected?** ansible (PyPI) ECOSYSTEM:introduced=0,fixed=3.0.0.

**Is there a fix for CVE-2021-3533?** Yes. ansible (PyPI): upgrade to 3.0.0 or later. Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.

**Am I affected by CVE-2021-3533?** Check whether you run ansible (PyPI) at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.

## How to fix

- ansible (PyPI): upgrade to 3.0.0 or later

  ```sh
  pip install "ansible>=3.0.0"
  ```


## Affected products

- ansible (PyPI) ECOSYSTEM:introduced=0,fixed=3.0.0

## Identifiers

- CVE-2021-3533
- PYSEC-2021-126

## Related threats

- [PYSEC-2026-1120 - Ansible symlink attack vulnerability](https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2023-5115-ansible-symlink-attack-vulnerability)
- [PYSEC-2026-768 - Ansible leaks password to logs](https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2022-3697-ansible-leaks-password-to-logs)
- [PYSEC-2026-618 - Insertion of Sensitive Information into Log File in ansible](https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2021-20180-insertion-of-sensitive-information-into-log-file-in-ansible)
- [Ansible community.general information exposure in Keycloak user module](https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2025-14010-ansible-community-general-information-exposure-in-keycloak-user)
- [Ansible discloses sensitive information in traceback error message](https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2021-3620-ansible-discloses-sensitive-information-in-traceback-error-message)
