GHSA-5wxr-w449-57cm is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.9) vulnerability in shivammathur/setup-php. A fix is available for shivammathur/setup-php — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Setup PHP: GitHub tokens configured by setup-php may be exposed through pinned affected Composer versions
Real-World Exposure
shivammathur/setup-phpReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects GitHub Actions packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Impact
This affects only workflows that pin an exact affected Composer semver version through setup-php, for example tools: composer:2.9.7.
Workflows using the default Composer version, composer:v2, or no pinned Composer version are not affected through setup-php, because those Composer URLs have been updated to patched Composer releases for all setup-php versions.
setup-php does not directly print the token. The token may be exposed through Composer when Composer validates github-oauth auth and rejects GitHub's newer hyphen-containing token format.
Public repository logs may expose the token. GitHub-hosted runner GITHUB_TOKEN values expire after the job, but exposure may still matter during the token lifetime and for longer-lived GitHub App or user tokens.
Patches
setup-php 2.37.1 skips generated GitHub OAuth auth for pinned Composer versions affected by Composer GHSA-f9f8-rm49-7jv2 while preserving other Composer auth, including Packagist auth.
Workarounds
Upgrade to setup-php 2.37.1 or newer. You can also avoid the affected path by using a patched Composer version: 2.9.8, 2.2.28, 1.10.28, or newer supported Composer releases.
It is recommended to avoid pinning affected Composer versions such as composer:2.9.7, unless you have automations to do timely updates in your workflows.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦GitHub Actions | shivammathur/setup-php | all versions | 2.37.1 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for shivammathur/setup-php, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update shivammathur/setup-php to 2.37.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-5wxr-w449-57cm 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-5wxr-w449-57cm in your dependencies?
Find it across GitHub Actions, including transitive dependencies.