GHSA-9gm9-c8mq-vq7m is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) OS Command Injection vulnerability in praisonai. A fix is available for praisonai — see the affected versions and patch details below.
PraisonAI: OS Command Injection in MCPHandler.parse_mcp_command()
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-9gm9-c8mq-vq7m.
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.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-9gm9-c8mq-vq7m plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 379,145 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
praisonaiReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Summary
The --mcp CLI argument is passed directly to shlex.split() and forwarded through the call chain to anyio.open_process() with no validation, allowlist check, or sanitization at any hop, allowing arbitrary OS command execution as the process user.
Details
cli/features/mcp.py:61 (source) -> praisonaiagents/mcp/mcp.py:345 (hop) -> mcp/client/stdio/__init__.py:253 (sink)
# source
parts = shlex.split(command)
# hop
cmd, args, env = self.parse_mcp_command(command, env_vars)
self.server_params = StdioServerParameters(command=cmd, args=arguments)
# sink
process = await anyio.open_process([command, *args])
Fixed in commit 47bff65413beaa3c21bf633c1fae4e684348368c (v4.5.69) by introducing a command allowlist:
ALLOWED_COMMANDS = {"npx", "uvx", "node", "python"}
if cmd not in ALLOWED_COMMANDS:
raise ValueError(f"Disallowed command: {cmd}")
PoC
# tested on: praisonai==4.5.48
# install: pip install praisonai==4.5.48
# run: praisonai --mcp "bash -c 'id > /tmp/pwned'"
# verify: cat /tmp/pwned
# expected output: uid=1000(...) gid=1000(...) groups=1000(...)
Impact
Any deployment where the --mcp argument is influenced by untrusted input is exposed to full OS command execution as the process user. No authentication is required.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | praisonai | ≥ 4.5.15&&< 4.5.69 | 4.5.69pip install --upgrade 'praisonai==4.5.69' |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for praisonai, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update praisonai to 4.5.69 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-9gm9-c8mq-vq7m 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 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like GHSA-9gm9-c8mq-vq7m can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-9gm9-c8mq-vq7m. 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-9gm9-c8mq-vq7m in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-9gm9-c8mq-vq7m across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.