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Atomicorp WAF Research Note: CVE-2026-79717

Galaxy_ng: galaxy_ng: blind ssrf via namespace avatar_url with no private-address restriction

CVE Details

Status: Attack Blocked by Atomicorp
  • Already protected by existing Atomicorp WAF rules
  • Protection status: Understanding Atomicorp WAF Protection Status
  • CVE: CVE-2026-79717
  • Name: Galaxy_ng: galaxy_ng: blind ssrf via namespace avatar_url with no private-address restriction
  • Severity: Medium
  • CVSS: 6.4 (v3.1) (Medium)
  • CVSS version: 3.1
  • CVSS source: redhat CNA
  • CVSS vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:N/A:L
    • Attack vector: Network
    • Attack complexity: Low
    • Privileges required: Low
    • User interaction: None
    • Scope: Changed
    • Confidentiality impact: Low
    • Integrity impact: None
    • Availability impact: Low
  • CWE: CWE-918 — Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)
  • Related CAPEC attack patterns (via MITRE CWE relationships): CAPEC-664
  • Vendor: Red Hat
  • Vulnerable product: Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2
  • CVE published: 2026-08-25
  • CVE last modified: 2026-08-28
  • EPSS: 0.0022; 11.9th percentile (FIRST )
  • Latest Update: 2026-09-06
  • Selected Rule IDs observed: 337109 , 337110 , 344360 , 398001 , 398021 , 398022
  • Matching rules: 6; rules with blocking actions: 5
  • Would-block Rule IDs: 337109 , 337110 , 344360 , 398021 , 398022
  • Request surfaces inspected: JSON request data, Request URI, Request argument names, Request arguments, Request cookies, SOAP request data, XML request data

Vulnerability Description

A server-side request forgery (SSRF) vulnerability was found in galaxy_ng, the Ansible Galaxy server plugin for Pulp. An authenticated user with namespace management permissions can set a namespace avatar URL to an arbitrary address, including internal networks, loopback, or cloud instance metadata endpoints. A background worker fetches that URL without checking the destination, which lets the attacker probe internal services and enumerate reachable IP addresses. The HTTP client is also configured without an overall timeout, so a slow or non-responsive target can pin workers and cause a denial of service.

  1. Maintain the observed Atomicorp protections. Keep your Atomicorp commercial rules current and confirm that the selected observed rules (337109 , 337110 , 344360 , 398021 , 398022 ) have not been locally disabled. Atomicorp commercial rules are enabled by default. If you use Atomic WAF, review the applicable policy and rule settings.

  2. Apply the vendor’s remediation. WAF protection is defense in depth and does not replace upgrading or following the affected vendor’s guidance.

    • CNA guidance source: redhat
    • Vendor workaround: There is no complete mitigation for this vulnerability. The following measures can reduce risk:

  3. Restrict galaxy.change_namespace and galaxy.add_namespace to trusted administrators only, so fewer users can trigger avatar downloads.

  4. In cloud deployments, protect instance metadata with hop-limited controls such as AWS IMDSv2 with HttpPutResponseHopLimit=1.

  5. Apply egress filtering on Pulp worker nodes so they cannot reach RFC1918, loopback, link-local, or cloud metadata addresses that are not required for normal Galaxy operation.

  6. Validate after changes. Confirm rule updates are current, review WAF events for the affected application, and test application behavior after vendor upgrades, mitigations, or local policy changes.

Research Notes

Atomicorp WAF protections are designed around attack techniques and exploit behaviors, allowing existing protections to apply across multiple vulnerabilities without requiring a unique rule for every CVE.

Public Vulnerability References

Test or Research Source

  • Source: Atomicorp AI Research Framework
  • Tags: cve, derived, ssrf, waf-probe

Research Note Context

This research note documents exploit-technique analysis associated with this vulnerability and references Atomicorp WAF protections observed during engineering review, testing, or validation activities.

Atomicorp security controls are generally designed to identify and mitigate attack techniques and exploit behaviors rather than individual CVE identifiers. As a result, protections developed for one vulnerability may also apply to related attack variants and future vulnerabilities using similar techniques.

Learn More

Atomicorp develops commercially supported security technologies for web applications, servers, endpoints, workloads, and legacy enterprise platforms.

Organizations interested in protecting systems against exploit techniques associated with vulnerabilities such as this one can learn more about:

  • Atomic ModSecurity Rules: commercially maintained WAF rules for ModSecurity deployments, including protections for web attacks, bots, scanners, malware, exploitation attempts, and emerging vulnerability classes.
  • Atomic WAF: an enterprise web application firewall with Atomicorp rules, centralized management, reporting, authentication controls, and operational tooling.
  • Atomic ModSecurity Integrator: a special licensing option for MSPs, MSSPs, OEMs, VARs, reverse proxy providers, and other integrators who want to incorporate Atomicorp ModSecurity rule technology into their own products or services.
  • Atomic OSSEC: an enterprise OSSEC-based intrusion detection, compliance, and security monitoring platform.
  • Atomic Protector: workload protection for Linux, web, cloud, data center, and hybrid environments.

For additional information, product evaluations, or technical discussions, visit https://www.atomicorp.com/ or https://modsecurity.io/ .