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CVE-2026-45578

HIGH

AVideo: OS command injection in on_publish.php execAsync via unescaped m3u8 URL

Published May 15, 2026Updated June 9, 2026Source: osv

Summary

## Summary **Type:** Classic shell-metacharacter injection. The YPTSocket notification branch in `plugin/Live/on_publish.php` builds an `execAsync()` command line by string concatenation, single-quoting each argument but never calling `escapeshellarg()`. A `'` in any of the three interpolated values (`$users_id`, `$m3u8`, `$obj->liveTransmitionHistory_id`) closes the quoted token and lets the attacker append arbitrary commands. **File:** `plugin/Live/on_publish.php`, line 267. **Root cause:** the developer wrapped each variable in literal single quotes (`'$users_id'`, `'$m3u8'`, `'$obj->liveTransmitionHistory_id'`) believing this provides shell-quoting. PHP single-quoted-into-shell is not safe quoting; it is just two literal quote characters that the shell pairs greedily. Any embedded `'` closes the outer string and resumes interpretation in the shell. The rest of the AVideo codebase already calls `escapeshellarg()` (137 call sites across the project) for ffmpeg invocations, so the safe primitive is well-known to the project; it was simply omitted from this branch. The endpoint is web-reachable (no `.htaccess` rule restricts `on_publish.php`, no `REMOTE_ADDR` check), so the trigger is a direct HTTP POST without going through nginx-rtmp. ## Affected Code **File:** `plugin/Live/on_publish.php`, lines 256-271. ```php if (AVideoPlugin::isEnabledByName('YPTSocket')) { $array = setLiveKey($lth->getKey(), $lth->getLive_servers_id()); @ob_clean(); _ob_start(); $lth = new LiveTransmitionHistory($obj->liveTransmitionHistory_id); $m3u8 = Live::getM3U8File($lth->getKey(), false, true); // value-carrying URL: contains the stream key verbatim $users_id = $obj->row['users_id']; $liveTransmitionHistory_id = $obj->liveTransmitionHistory_id; if (strtoupper(substr(PHP_OS, 0, 3)) === 'WIN') { include "{$global['systemRootPath']}plugin/Live/on_publish_socket_notification.php"; } else { $command = get_php(). " {$global['systemRootPath']}plugin/Live/on_publish_socket_notification.php '$users_id' '$m3u8' '{$obj->liveTransmitionHistory_id}'"; // <-- BUG: literal quotes, no escapeshellarg $pid = execAsync($command); // sink: shell exec } } ``` `Live::getM3U8File($key, false, true)` (`Live.php:1337-1350` -> `Live.php:4845-4889`) returns `"{$playerServer}{$uuid}.m3u8"` (or `"{$playerServer}{$uuid}/index.m3u8"`) where `$uuid = $this->getKeyWithIndex(...)` is the stream key string read straight out of the `live_transmitions` table. There is no character normalisation between database read and command construction. **Why it's wrong:** `'$m3u8'` is not shell quoting. PHP interpolates `$m3u8` into the string between two literal `'` characters. The shell then tokenises the result. If `$m3u8` contains `'` itself, the shell sees `'…'` followed by `<attacker bytes>` followed by another `'`, which forms two adjacent quoted strings concatenated with whatever the attacker put between them. Embedded `;`, backticks, `$()`, `&&`, `|`, or `\n` then run as shell commands. The fix is `escapeshellarg()`, which AVideo already uses 137 times in ffmpeg invocations (e.g. `getVideos.php:1069`, `videos.json.php`, `aVideoEncoder.json.php`); this branch simply forgot it. ## Exploit Chain 1. Attacker authenticates and arranges for one of the command variables to contain `'`. Under the current code the readily available primitive is a `canStream` user supplying a stream key via the persistence path (`saveLive.php`'s `$_REQUEST['key']` is written verbatim to `live_transmitions.key`). State: a row exists with `key = "evilkey';id>/tmp/pwn;#"`. 2. Attacker POSTs directly to `https://target/plugin/Live/on_publish.php` (the file is web-served, no IP restriction) with body: ``` name=evilkey';id>/tmp/pwn;# p=<md5(attacker_password)> tcurl=rtmp://target/live addr=1.2.3.4 ``` `on_publish.php:117` runs `preg_replace("/[&=]/", '', $_POST['name'])` — only `&`/`=` are stripped, so `';id>/tmp/pwn;#` survives. Lines 143-163 confirm `$_GET['p'] === $user->getPassword()` (the attacker is themself, knows their own MD5), persist a `LiveTransmitionHistory` row with the poisoned key, and set `$obj->error = false`. State: authorisation gate passed. 3. Line 261 calls `Live::getM3U8File($lth->getKey(), false, true)`, returning `"https://server/live/evilkey';id>/tmp/pwn;#.m3u8"`. State: `$m3u8` carries the injection payload. 4. Line 267 builds the command string by concatenation: ``` php /var/www/AVideo/plugin/Live/on_publish_socket_notification.php '7' 'https://server/live/evilkey';id>/tmp/pwn;#.m3u8' '42' ``` Shell tokenisation sees: `php`, `…/on_publish_socket_notification.php`, `'7'`, `'https://server/live/evilkey'` (the attacker's `'` closed the second quote), then operator `;`, then command-2 `id>/tmp/pwn`, then `;`, then `#.m3u8' '42'` (everything after `#` is a comment). State: the shell has parsed two real commands. 5. Line 269 `execAsync($command)` spawns the shell, which runs the secondary command `id>/tmp/pwn` as the AVideo PHP-FPM/Apache user. State: arbitrary OS command execution with the privileges of the web-server runtime user. 6. Final state: the attacker reads `/tmp/pwn`, swaps the payload for a reverse shell, exfiltrates `videos/configuration.php` (database password and root URL), drops a webshell into the upload tree, or pivots to other plugin credentials (PayPal/Stripe API keys, AWS keys for the CDN plugin, OpenAI key for the AI plugin). ## Security Impact **Severity:** sec-high. Pre-auth-friendly remote code execution: the only prerequisite is that the attacker can place a `'` into one of the three command-line variables, which on a streaming platform means a single low-privilege account. **Attacker capability:** with one `canStream` account and two HTTP requests, the attacker executes arbitrary shell commands as the AVideo runtime user. From there: read database credentials, exfiltrate user data, write a webshell into a publicly-served path, pivot to plugin credentials, persist via cron, or escalate via any local sudoers entries. **Preconditions:** AVideo deployment with `Live` and `YPTSocket` plugins enabled (the standard live-streaming bundle); attacker can reach `/plugin/Live/on_publish.php` over the network; a value containing `'` is reachable into `users_id`, `m3u8`, or `liveTransmitionHistory_id` (the current code lets `canStream` users supply such a value via the stream-key persistence path). **Differential:** source-inspection-verified end-to-end. The shell-tokenising behaviour of `'…'…'…'` is reproducible offline: ```sh $ s="php /a/b.php '7' 'https://s/live/evilkey';id>/tmp/pwn;#.m3u8' '42'" $ rm -f /tmp/pwn; bash -c "$s" 2>/dev/null; ls -l /tmp/pwn -rw-r--r-- 1 user user N <date> /tmp/pwn # injected `id` ran, output captured ``` The patched build (with the suggested `escapeshellarg()` fix below applied) constructs `php /a/b.php '7' 'https://s/live/evilkey'\''id>/tmp/pwn;#.m3u8' '42'`, which the shell parses as a single argument containing the literal characters; the second command never runs. ## Suggested Fix Use `escapeshellarg()` on every variable interpolated into the command string. This matches established project conventions (137 other call sites for ffmpeg invocations). ```diff --- a/plugin/Live/on_publish.php +++ b/plugin/Live/on_publish.php @@ -264,7 +264,11 @@ if (strtoupper(substr(PHP_OS, 0, 3)) === 'WIN') { include "{$global['systemRootPath']}plugin/Live/on_publish_socket_notification.php"; } else { - $command = get_php(). " {$global['systemRootPath']}plugin/Live/on_publish_socket_notification.php '$users_id' '$m3u8' '{$obj->liveTransmitionHistory_id}'"; + $command = get_php() + . ' ' . escapeshellarg($global['systemRootPath'] . 'plugin/Live/on_publish_socket_notification.php') + . ' ' . escapeshellarg((string) $users_id) + . ' ' . escapeshellarg((string) $m3u8) + . ' ' . escapeshellarg((string) $obj->liveTransmitionHistory_id); _error_log("NGINX Live::on_publish YPTSocket start ($command)"); $pid = execAsync($command); } ``` Defence-in-depth: `on_publish.php` is the nginx-rtmp webhook and should not be reachable from the public Internet. Add an `.htaccess`/nginx `location` rule restricting the file to `127.0.0.1` and any configured RTMP server IPs. That blocks the trigger path independently of the sanitisation work.

Affected Packages (1)

PackageEcosystemAffectedFixed In
WWBN/AVideo
packagist
All versionsRange-based data available

Vulnerability Classification

Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) identifiers for this vulnerability type.

  • CWE-78
    OS Command InjectionMITRE

CVSS Score Breakdown

What the CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) 8.8 score means for each attack dimension.

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-45578?
AVideo: OS command injection in on_publish.php execAsync via unescaped m3u8 URL This vulnerability has been assigned a severity rating of HIGH (CVSS score: 8.8/10).
How do I check if my project is affected by CVE-2026-45578?
CVE-2026-45578 affects WWBN/AVideo. Use GeekWala's free vulnerability scanner to check your dependencies against CVE-2026-45578 and 200,000+ other known vulnerabilities.

Severity & Exploitability

CVSS Score
8.8

High exploitability or significant impact. Prioritize remediation within days.

Also Known As

GHSA-xw67-cg5f-4m2r

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