PraisonAI Exposes Sensitive Environment Variable via Untrusted MCP Subprocess Execution (MervinPraison PraisonAI)
At a glance
- Source
- NVD
- EPSS
- EPSS 0.18 % · percentile 8 ()
- State
- PUBLISHED
- Published
- Updated
- Assigner
- GitHub_M
- NVD status
- Analyzed
Description
PraisonAI is a multi-agent teams system. Prior to 4.5.128, PraisonAI’s MCP (Model Context Protocol) integration allows spawning background servers via stdio using user-supplied command strings (e.g., MCP("npx -y @smithery/cli ...")). These commands are executed through Python’s subprocess module. By default, the implementation forwards the entire parent process environment to the spawned subprocess. As a result, any MCP command executed in this manner inherits all environment variables from the host process, including sensitive data such as API keys, authentication tokens, and database credentials. This behavior introduces a security risk when untrusted or third-party commands are used. In common scenarios where MCP tools are invoked via package runners such as npx -y, arbitrary code from external or potentially compromised packages may execute with access to these inherited environment variables. This creates a risk of unintended credential exposure and enables potential supply chain attacks through silent exfiltration of secrets. This vulnerability is fixed in 4.5.128.
Weaknesses (CWE)
- CWE-200 — Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor
- CWE-214 — Invocation of Process Using Visible Sensitive Information
References
Scores
| Version | Score | Vector | Scored by |
|---|---|---|---|
| CVSS 3.1 | MEDIUM 5.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N | GitHub_M |
| CVSS 3.1 | MEDIUM 5.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N | NVD · security-advisories@github.com (Secondary) |
Advisories
- GHSA-pj2r-f9mw-vrcq — PraisonAI Vulnerable to Sensitive Environment Variable Exposure via Untrusted MCP Subprocess Execution
- PYSEC-2026-2918 — PraisonAI Vulnerable to Sensitive Environment Variable Exposure via Untrusted MCP Subprocess Execution
European references
- ENISA EUVD · EUVD-2026-21511
- GCVE · GCVE-0-2026-40159
Affected configurations (NVD CPE)
cpe:2.3:a:praison:praisonai:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*< 4.5.128
Affected products
| Product | Versions |
|---|---|
| MervinPraison · PraisonAI | affected < 4.5.128 |
Sources
| Source | Licence |
|---|---|
| CVE List (CVEProject cvelistV5) | CVE Program Terms of Use |
| EPSS (FIRST.org) | FIRST — attribution requested |
| ENISA EUVD | ENISA — reproduction authorised, source acknowledged |
| NVD (NIST) via fkie-cad/nvd-json-data-feeds | Public domain — this product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD |