CVE-2024-24821
HIGHCode execution and possible privilege escalation via compromised InstalledVersions.php or installed.php in Composer
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
Blast Radius
composer/composer🐘composer/composerReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Packagist packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Composer is a dependency Manager for the PHP language. In affected versions several files within the local working directory are included during the invocation of Composer and in the context of the executing user. As such, under certain conditions arbitrary code execution may lead to local privilege escalation, provide lateral user movement or malicious code execution when Composer is invoked within a directory with tampered files. All Composer CLI commands are affected, including composer.phar's self-update. The following scenarios are of high risk: Composer being run with sudo, Pipelines which may execute Composer on untrusted projects, Shared environments with developers who run Composer individually on the same project. This vulnerability has been addressed in versions 2.7.0 and 2.2.23. It is advised that the patched versions are applied at the earliest convenience. Where not possible, the following should be addressed: Remove all sudo composer privileges for all users to mitigate root privilege escalation, and avoid running Composer within an untrusted directory, or if needed, verify that the contents of vendor/composer/InstalledVersions.php and vendor/composer/installed.php do not include untrusted code. A reset can also be done on these files by the following:```sh
rm vendor/composer/installed.php vendor/composer/InstalledVersions.php
composer install --no-scripts --no-plugins
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | composer/composer | ≥ 2.0.0-alpha1&&< 2.2.23 | 2.2.23 |
| 🐘Packagist | composer/composer | ≥ 2.3.0-rc1&&< 2.7.0 | 2.7.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for composer/composer. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update composer/composer to 2.2.23 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-24821 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2024-24821 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to CVE-2024-24821. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-24821 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2024-24821 across Packagist dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.