PYSEC-2026-3894

Dashboard / Vulnerabilities / PYSEC-2026-3894

PYSEC-2026-3894

Summary: PraisonAI: [Auth Bypass] `praisonai serve agents --api-key` is silently ignored — agent-invocation routes (`POST /agents`, `POST /agents/{agent_name}`) run unauthenticated

Details: ### Summary `praisonai serve agents` exposes HTTP routes that invoke registered agents. The CLI advertises `--api-key` with help text "API key for authentication", parses it, and forwards it into `ServeHandler`. But `_create_agents_app()` **never reads `config["api_key"]` again** and installs no auth dependency or middleware on its direct routes. The configured key is a no-op flag. As a result, an unauthenticated network caller can invoke exposed agents (`POST /agents` and `POST /agents/{agent_name}`) even when the operator passed `--api-key`. Requests with no credentials, a wrong `Authorization: Bearer`, a wrong `X-API-Key`, or an empty bearer all reach `agent.start()`. The failure is made sharper by the fact that a **working auth dependency already exists in the same module** — `praisonai.api.agent_invoke.verify_token` guards every `/api/v1/...` route with `Depends(verify_token)` and is mounted into the very same app. The direct n8n-compat routes simply do not use it. ## Technical Detail ### Source-to-sink trace **1. CLI advertises and forwards `--api-key`:** ```python # cli/commands/serve.py @app.command("agents") def serve_agents(..., api_key: Optional[str] = typer.Option(None, "--api-key", help="API key for authentication")): ... if api_key: args.extend(["--api-key", api_key]) exit_code = handle_serve_command(args) ``` **2. `cmd_agents()` parses `api_key` into the spec — and that is the last time it is touched:** ```python # cli/features/serve.py — cmd_agents() spec = { ..., "api_key": {"default": None} } parsed = self._parse_args(args, spec) app = self._create_agents_app(parsed) ``` A grep of the entire `cli/features/serve.py` for `api_key` returns **only** the two `spec` entries (`cmd_agents` line ~199 and `cmd_unified` line ~847). `config["api_key"]` is never read inside `_create_agents_app()` / `_create_unified_app()`; it is never compared, and no dependency is attached. **3. `_create_agents_app()` imports `FastAPI, HTTPException, Request` — no `Depends`, no `Header`, no auth middleware.** Every `HTTPException` raised in the agents routes is `400`/`404`/`500` (validation / not-found / execution error); none is `401`. **4. Sink — unauthenticated request reaches `agent.start()`:** ```python # cli/features/serve.py @app.post("/agents/{agent_name}") # n8n compatibility route async def invoke_single_agent(agent_name: str, request: Request): body = await request.json() query = body.get("query", "") or body.get("message", "") ... agent = agent_invoke.get_agent(agent_name) result = await loop.run_in_executor(None, agent.start, query) # no auth anywhere above return {"response": str(result)} @app.post(path) # default path "/agents" async def invoke_agents(request: Request, query_data: AgentQuery = None): ... agent.start(query) ... ``` ### The auth dependency exists — it just isn't applied here `_create_agents_app()` mounts the `agent_invoke` router into the same app: ```python # cli/features/serve.py if getattr(agent_invoke, 'FASTAPI_AVAILABLE', False) and hasattr(agent_invoke, 'router'): app.include_router(agent_invoke.router) ``` That router properly authenticates every sensitive route: ```python # api/agent_invoke.py CALL_SERVER_TOKEN = os.getenv('CALL_SERVER_TOKEN') async def verify_token(request, authorization=Header(None)) -> None: ... if token != CALL_SERVER_TOKEN: raise HTTPException(status_code=401, detail="Unauthorized") @router.get("/api/v1/agents") async def list_agents(_: None = Depends(verify_token)): ... # and register/unregister/info all use it ``` So in the same process `GET /api/v1/agents` returns `401` without a token, while `POST /agents/{agent_name}` returns `200`. Note also that `verify_token` reads the `CALL_SERVER_TOKEN` env var — **not** the CLI `--api-key` — so the CLI option feeds no auth path at all. ### Trigger conditions ``` praisonai serve agents --file agents.yaml --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8765 --api-key expected-secret POST /agents/{agent_name} body {"query":"..."} with no / wrong / empty credentials ``` ## Proof of Concept Built the **real** `_create_agents_app()` and exercised it over HTTP via FastAPI `TestClient`. Only `praisonaiagents.Agent` is stubbed (`.start()` returns `EXEC:<query>`), so no real LLM/credentials. `CALL_SERVER_TOKEN=expected-secret` was set so the sibling `/api/v1` router is genuinely armed — making the contrast explicit. ``` Operator started with: --api-key expected-secret (CALL_SERVER_TOKEN also set) == Sibling /api/v1 route WITH Depends(verify_token) == GET /api/v1/agents [no creds ] -> HTTP 401 GET /api/v1/agents [wrong bearer] -> HTTP 401 == Direct agent-invocation route (the bug) == POST /agents/owned [no creds ] -> HTTP 200 {'response': 'EXEC:hello'} POST /agents/owned [wrong bearer ] -> HTTP 200 {'response': 'EXEC:hello'} POST /agents/owned [wrong x-api-key] -> HTTP 200 {'response': 'EXEC:hello'} POST /agents/owned [empty bearer ] -> HTTP 200 {'response': 'EXEC:hello'} POST /agents [no creds ] -> HTTP 200 {'response': 'EXEC:hi'} ``` The auth mechanism works for `/api/v1` (401) and is entirely absent on the direct `/agents` routes (200), despite `--api-key` being configured. ### Equivalent HTTP trigger in a fully installed environment ```bash praisonai serve agents --file agents.yaml --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8765 --api-key expected-secret curl -sS -X POST http://TARGET:8765/agents/owned \ -H 'Content-Type: application/json' --data-binary '{"query":"hello"}' # -> 200 {"response":"..."} (expected: 401 Unauthorized) ``` ## Impact - **Direct primitive**: unauthenticated agent invocation despite a configured API key. - **Misleading control (aggravating)**: because the CLI advertises `--api-key` as authentication, operators may deliberately expose the service (e.g. `--host 0.0.0.0`, reverse proxy, n8n integration) believing it is protected, increasing the real-world likelihood of exposure. - **Downstream**: exposed agents commonly hold LLM provider credentials, RAG/memory, browser/search, MCP, or shell/file tools; the bypass lets an attacker drive those capabilities. Baseline impact is unauthorized LLM cost + access to agent responses. ## Suggested Mitigation - When `config["api_key"]` is set, build a shared auth dependency and attach it to every agent-invocation / state-changing route in `_create_agents_app()` and `_create_unified_app()` (`dependencies=[Depends(verify)]`). - Reuse / unify with the existing `verify_token` so the direct `/agents` routes and the `/api/v1` routes share one mechanism, and wire the CLI `--api-key` into that mechanism (today it feeds nothing; `verify_token` reads `CALL_SERVER_TOKEN`). - Use constant-time comparison (`hmac.compare_digest`); `verify_token` currently uses `!=`. - Update discovery metadata from `auth_modes=["none"]` to `["api-key","bearer"]` for protected endpoints. - Regression tests next to `tests/unit/test_serve_unified.py`: `_create_agents_app({"api_key":"secret",...})` → `POST /agents/{name}` with no creds / wrong `Authorization` / wrong `X-API-Key` returns `401`; correct key succeeds. ```python import hmac from fastapi import Header, HTTPException, Depends def _auth_dependency(expected_key: str): async def verify(authorization: str | None = Header(None), x_api_key: str | None = Header(None, alias="X-API-Key")): token = x_api_key if authorization and authorization.startswith("Bearer "): token = authorization[7:] if not token or not hmac.compare_digest(token, expected_key): raise HTTPException(status_code=401, detail="Unauthorized") return Depends(verify) ```

References: https://github.com/MervinPraison/PraisonAI/security/advisories/GHSA-r7v3-x45f-g7hp, https://github.com/MervinPraison/PraisonAI/commit/2f9677abb2ea68eab864ee8b6a828fd0141612e1, https://github.com/MervinPraison/PraisonAI, https://github.com/MervinPraison/PraisonAI/releases/tag/v4.6.58, https://pypi.org/project/praisonai, https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-r7v3-x45f-g7hp, https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-55538