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Fencer Vulns
medium 6.7

CVE-2026-25129 json

PsySH has Local Privilege Escalation via CWD .psysh.php auto-load

published 2026-01-30 9 mo ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also GHSA-4486-gxhx-5mg7 , EUVD-2026-5009

cvss
6.7
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.3%
EPSS 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 25%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

PsySH is a runtime developer console, interactive debugger, and REPL for PHP. Prior to versions 0.11.23 and 0.12.19, PsySH automatically loads and executes a `.psysh.php` file from the Current Working Directory (CWD) on startup. If an attacker can write to a directory that a victim later uses as their CWD when launching PsySH, the attacker can trigger arbitrary code execution in the victim's context. When the victim runs PsySH with elevated privileges (e.g., root), this results in local privilege escalation. This is a CWD configuration poisoning issue leading to arbitrary code execution in the victim user’s context. If a privileged user (e.g., root, a CI runner, or an ops/debug account) launches PsySH with CWD set to an attacker-writable directory containing a malicious `.psysh.php`, the attacker can execute commands with that privileged user’s permissions, resulting in local privilege escalation. Downstream consumers that embed PsySH inherit this risk. For example, Laravel Tinker (`php artisan tinker`) uses PsySH. If a privileged user runs Tinker while their shell is in an attacker-writable directory, the `.psysh.php` auto-load behavior can be abused in the same way to execute attacker-controlled code under the victim’s privileges. Versions 0.11.23 and 0.12.19 patch the issue.

Patch / fix

  • packagist psy/psysh 0.11.23, 0.12.19
  • psysh psysh 0.11.23, 0.12.19

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
Proof of concept is public
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
9 mo ago

Exploit prediction

0.32% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 25% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • github.com https://github.com/bobthecow/psysh/security/advisories/GHSA-4486-gxhx-5mg7 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 6.7 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 7.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
GitHub 3.1 6.7 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
packagist psy/psysh
>=0.12.0, <0.12.19
<0.11.23
0.12.19
0.11.23

Affected products

  • bobthecow psysh

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-427 Uncontrolled Search Path Element

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.