Self-hosted CVE lab · VirtualBox + Ansible

Build a vulnerable machine. Break it. Restore the snapshot.

One Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS base image and a library of Ansible playbooks. Pick a CVE, run its playbook, practice the exploit, then roll the VM back to a clean snapshot. No cloud account, no subscription, no reinstall.


Base Image
Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS
Hypervisor
VirtualBox 7.x
Provisioner
Ansible 2.15+
Reset Method
VM Snapshot
Host RAM
8 GB minimum
Licence
MIT

Get Started

Three steps from a blank VM to a working target

STEP 01

Build the base image

Create the VM in VirtualBox, install Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS, and set up SSH so your host can reach it.

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STEP 02

Configure the vulnerable target

Clone the playbooks, add the shared toolchain, and take a snapshot named clean-base. Then run the playbook for the CVE you want to practice. It pins the affected package version, plants the vulnerable configuration, and prints the service and port to attack.

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STEP 03

Roll back and repeat

When you are done, restore the clean-base snapshot. The machine returns to its pristine state in under a minute, ready for the next CVE.

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Latest Playbooks

The 12 newest additions

CVE-2026-87902High

WordPress 7.1.1 page-template path traversal

WordPress 7.1.1

CVSS
8.1 / 10
Exploit
Traversal
Vector
Web app
Difficulty
Medium
cms php web wordpress 2026-10-21
ansible-playbook cve/CVE-2026-87902.yml
Read the walkthrough →
CVE-2025-32023High

Redis 7.4.2 HyperLogLog out-of-bounds write

Redis 7.4.2

CVSS
7.0 / 10
Exploit
RCE
Vector
Remote
Difficulty
Hard
heap nosql redis 2026-10-20
ansible-playbook cve/CVE-2025-32023.yml
Read the walkthrough →
CVE-2021-42013Critical

Apache httpd 2.4.50 incomplete traversal fix

Apache httpd 2.4.50

CVSS
9.8 / 10
Exploit
RCE
Vector
Web app
Difficulty
Easy
apache cgi web 2026-10-20
ansible-playbook cve/CVE-2021-42013.yml
Read the walkthrough →
CVE-2021-41773High

Apache httpd 2.4.49 path traversal

Apache httpd 2.4.49

CVSS
7.5 / 10
Exploit
Traversal
Vector
Web app
Difficulty
Easy
apache cgi web 2026-10-20
ansible-playbook cve/CVE-2021-41773.yml
Read the walkthrough →