VDB
KO
CRITICAL 9.0

GHSA-jfxc-v5g9-38xr

PraisonAI Vulnerable to Arbitrary File Write / Path Traversal in Action Orchestrator

Details

The Action Orchestrator feature contains a Path Traversal vulnerability that allows an attacker (or compromised agent) to write to arbitrary files outside of the configured workspace directory. By supplying relative path segments (`../`) in the target path, malicious actions can overwrite sensitive system files or drop executable payloads on the host.

### Details Location: `src/praisonai/praisonai/cli/features/action_orchestrator.py` (Lines 402, 409, 423)

Vulnerable Code snippet: ```python target = workspace / step.target ```

In the `_apply_step` method, paths are constructed by concatenating the `workspace` path with a user-supplied `step.target` string: `target = workspace / step.target`. The code fails to resolve and validate that the final absolute path remains within the bounds of the `workspace` directory. When processing `FILE_CREATE` or `FILE_EDIT` actions, this flaw permits arbitrary file modification.

### PoC Construct a malicious `ActionStep` payload with path traversal characters:

```python from praisonai.cli.features.action_orchestrator import ActionStep, ActionType, ActionStatus

# Payload targeting a file outside the workspace step = ActionStep( id="test_traversal", action_type=ActionType.FILE_CREATE, description="Malicious file write", target="../../../../../../../tmp/orchestrator_pwned.txt", params={"content": "pwned"}, status=ActionStatus.APPROVED )

# When the orchestrator applies this step, it writes to the traversed path # _apply_step(step) ```

### Impact This is an Arbitrary File Write vulnerability. Anyone running the Action Orchestrator to apply modifications is vulnerable. A malicious prompt could trick the agent into generating a plan that overwrites critical files (e.g., `~/.ssh/authorized_keys`, `.bashrc`) leading to Remote Code Execution (RCE) or system corruption.

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Affected packages

PyPI / praisonai
Introduced in: 0 Fixed in: 4.5.113
Fix pip install --upgrade 'praisonai>=4.5.113'

References