GHSA-2ffv-r4r9-r8xr
Laravel RCE vulnerability in "cookie" session driver
Blast Radius
illuminate/cookie🐘illuminate/cookieReal-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
Application's using the "cookie" session driver were the primary applications affected by this vulnerability. Since we have not yet released a security release for the Laravel 5.5 version of the framework, we recommend that all applications running Laravel 5.5 and earlier do not use the "cookie" session driver in their production deployments.
Regarding the vulnerability, applications using the "cookie" session driver that were also exposing an encryption oracle via their application were vulnerable to remote code execution. An encryption oracle is a mechanism where arbitrary user input is encrypted and the encrypted string is later displayed or exposed to the user. This combination of scenarios lets the user generate valid Laravel signed encryption strings for any plain-text string, thus allowing them to craft Laravel session payloads when an application is using the "cookie" driver.
This fix prefixes cookie values with an HMAC hash of the cookie's name before encryption and then verifies a matching hash on decryption, making it impossible to craft a valid cookie payload even if an encryption oracle is exposed via the application.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | illuminate/cookie | ≥ 4.1.0&&< 6.18.31 | 6.18.31 |
| 🐘Packagist | illuminate/cookie | ≥ 7.0.0&&< 7.22.4 | 7.22.4 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for illuminate/cookie. 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 illuminate/cookie to 6.18.31 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-2ffv-r4r9-r8xr 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 GHSA-2ffv-r4r9-r8xr 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 GHSA-2ffv-r4r9-r8xr. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-2ffv-r4r9-r8xr in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-2ffv-r4r9-r8xr across Packagist dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.