6.7

CVSS Score

3.1

-

CVSS Score

Basic Information

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CVE-2026-25129

CVE-2026-25129: PsySH has Local Privilege Escalation via CWD .psysh.php auto-load

PsySH is a runtime developer console, interactive debugger, and REPL for PHP. Prior to versions 0.11.23 and 0.12.19, PsySH automatically loads and executes a .psysh.php file from the Current Working Directory (CWD) on startup. If an attacker can write to a directory that a victim later uses as their CWD when launching PsySH, the attacker can trigger arbitrary code execution in the victim's context. When the victim runs PsySH with elevated privileges (e.g., root), this results in local privilege escalation. This is a CWD configuration poisoning issue leading to arbitrary code execution in the victim user’s context. If a privileged user (e.g., root, a CI runner, or an ops/debug account) launches PsySH with CWD set to an attacker-writable directory containing a malicious .psysh.php, the attacker can execute commands with that privileged user’s permissions, resulting in local privilege escalation. Downstream consumers that embed PsySH inherit this risk. For example, Laravel Tinker (php artisan tinker) uses PsySH. If a privileged user runs Tinker while their shell is in an attacker-writable directory, the .psysh.php auto-load behavior can be abused in the same way to execute attacker-controlled code under the victim’s privileges. Versions 0.11.23 and 0.12.19 patch the issue.

(GitHub Advisory)

Miggo Vulnerability Database

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CVE-2026-25129

CVE-2026-25129:

6.7

CVSS Score

3.1

-

CVSS Score

Basic Information

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Technical Details

Package Name	Ecosystem	Vulnerable Versions	First Patched Version
psy/psysh	composer	>= 0.12.0, <= 0.12.18	0.12.19
psy/psysh	composer	<= 0.11.22	0.11.23

Technical Details

Vulnerability Intelligence
Miggo AI

Root Cause Analysis

The vulnerability, identified as GHSA-4486-gxhx-5mg7, is a local privilege escalation flaw in PsySH. It stems from the automatic and implicit execution of a .psysh.php configuration file from the Current Working Directory (CWD) upon startup. An attacker could create a malicious .psysh.php file in a shared, writable directory (e.g., /tmp). If a user with elevated privileges subsequently runs PsySH from that directory, the malicious PHP code is executed with those privileges.

The analysis of the security patches (commits 5e93b5c25811b481248623df0527b32120d8b46e and 8ec3d5837c1fb5d537053db2b9713fc716f3e4f2) reveals that the core of the vulnerability was in the Psy\Configuration::init() method. This method was responsible for locating and loading the local configuration file without any trust verification. The fix introduces a "Restricted Mode", which adds a trust verification step. Before loading a local .psysh.php, PsySH now prompts the user for consent or checks against a list of trusted project directories, preventing the automatic execution of untrusted code.

The primary vulnerable function is Psy\Configuration::init(), which contained the unsafe logic. The function Psy\Configuration::loadConfigFile() acts as the execution sink by using require on the provided file path. The process was typically initiated by the Psy\Shell::__construct() constructor, which would create the Configuration object and trigger the vulnerable loading sequence.

Vulnerable functions

Psy\Configuration::init

src/Configuration.php

In vulnerable versions, the `init` function would automatically find and load a `.psysh.php` configuration file from the current working directory or its parent directories without any security validation. An attacker could place a malicious `.psysh.php` file in a directory, and when a privileged user runs PsySH from that location, the malicious code would be executed. The patch replaced this direct loading mechanism with a call to `loadLocalConfigIfTrusted()`, which requires user consent before loading local configurations.

Psy\Configuration::loadConfigFile

src/Configuration.php

This function is the execution sink of the vulnerability. It takes a file path and executes its content using a `require` statement. In the vulnerable workflow, the `init` function would call `loadConfigFile` with the path to a potentially malicious `.psysh.php` file found in the current working directory, leading to arbitrary code execution.

Psy\Shell::__construct

src/Shell.php

In vulnerable versions, the `Shell` constructor immediately creates a `Configuration` object. The `Configuration` constructor, in turn, calls the vulnerable `init()` method. This means that simply instantiating the `Psy\Shell` class was enough to trigger the automatic loading and execution of a `.psysh.php` file from the current working directory.

Vulnerability Intelligence
Miggo AI

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WAF Protection Rules

WAF Rule

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Reasoning

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