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CVE-2026-18141 – Mutual TLS Authentication Bypass – Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.6 and 2.7

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Summary

CVE-2026-18141 is an authentication bypass vulnerability in aap-gateway, the gateway component supporting Event-Driven Ansible (EDA) in Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform. An unauthenticated, remote attacker can circumvent mutual TLS (mTLS) authentication and inject arbitrary events into EDA workflows. Red Hat rates the flaw Important with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.2 (High).

Technical details

  • Root cause: Improper certificate validation (CWE-295). The gateway trusts a client-supplied HTTP Subject header instead of enforcing the certificate presented during mutual TLS.
  • Trigger conditions: An attacker manipulates the event stream URL and forges the HTTP Subject header to impersonate an expected certificate subject. Error messages disclose the expected certificate subjects, easing exploitation.
  • Attack vector: Network — reachable via exposed EDA event stream endpoints; no authentication, privileges, or user interaction required.
  • Impact: Bypass of mTLS authentication allowing injection of arbitrary events into EDA workflows (high integrity impact; limited confidentiality impact; no availability impact).

Affected software

  • Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.6 — ansible-automation-platform-26/gateway-rhel9 (affected)
  • Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.7 — ansible-automation-platform-27/gateway-rhel9 (affected)
  • automation-gateway (affected)
  • Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.5 — ansible-automation-platform-25/gateway-rhel8 (not affected)

Severity

  • CVSS v3.1 base score: 8.2 (High)
  • Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:N

Mitigation and recommended actions

  • Immediate: No fixed version is specified in the CVE record at time of writing. Consult Red Hat’s official security advisory (access.redhat.com) for updates and apply the vendor-provided fix once available.
  • If no patch: Restrict network access to the EDA event stream endpoints at the firewall or load balancer level, permitting only trusted sources to reach the event stream ports. Monitor EDA event logs for unexpected events originating from unverified sources.

How IONIX identifies potentially affected assets

IONIX matches the following signals against data already collected when it crawled the asset; identifying the technology sends no request beyond that crawl.

  • Raw response body: Log in to Automation Controller, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
  • Page title: Automation Controller, Ansible Tower, Ansible Automation Platform
  • www-authenticate response header: Basic realm="Automation Controller", Basic realm="Ansible Tower"
  • x-api-product-name response header: Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
  • application-name meta tag: Automation Controller

References

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1

Map your entire attack surface (continously)

IONIX uses multi-factor discovery methods, including DNS analysis, certificate mapping, metadata inspection, and more, to automatically map every internet-facing asset across your environment. This includes cloud instances, third-party platforms, shadow IT, and even forgotten infrastructure that traditional tools miss.

2

Monitor for new CVEs

Dozens of threat intel feeds using agentic technology are continuously analyzed to detect the appearance of proof-of-concept code, exploit kits, and indicators of active targeting. IONIX goes further by applying AI to proactively evaluate whether emerging vulnerabilities are likely to be exploited, even before PoCs go public.

3

Identify Potential External Exposures

Not all CVEs matter. IONIX filters vulnerabilities by asking attacker-centric questions: Can it be reached from the internet? Does it require authentication? Is it being exploited in the wild? This dramatically reduces noise and focuses teams on threats that can actually be weaponized.

4

Create Safe, Scalable Exploit Validations

IONIX transforms real-world PoCs into safe, non-intrusive test payloads that can be run in production environments without disruption. These simulations are precisely targeted to the systems that are vulnerable, ensuring rapid validation without unnecessary load.

5

Execute Exploit Validations

By combining context about software stack, versioning, exposure status, and reachability, IONIX ensures that only the right payloads are executed against the right assets, maximizing efficiency and minimizing risk.

6

Drive Fast and Actionable Remediation

Results are routed through integrations with ticketing, SOAR, and SIEM tools. Issues are written in plain language, bundled into remediation clusters, and prioritized based on asset criticality, exploitability, and blast radius. This shortens mean time to remediation (MTTR) and empowers teams to act with confidence.

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