Composer has Command Injection via Malicious Perforce Reference

MITRE NVD CVE.ORG JSON API Print: PDF PDF

Summary

CVECVE-2026-40261
StatePUBLISHED
AssignerGitHub_M
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2026-04-15 21:17:27 UTC
Updated2026-06-30 03:19:17 UTC
DescriptionComposer is a dependency manager for PHP. Versions 1.0 through 2.2.26 and 2.3 through 2.9.5 contain a command injection vulnerability in the Perforce::syncCodeBase() method, which appends the $sourceReference parameter to a shell command without proper escaping, and additionally in the Perforce::generateP4Command() method as in GHSA-wg36-wvj6-r67p / CVE-2026-40176, which interpolates user-supplied Perforce connection parameters (port, user, client) from the source url field without proper escaping. An attacker can inject arbitrary commands through crafted source reference or source url values containing shell metacharacters, even if Perforce is not installed. Unlike CVE-2026-40176, the source reference and url are provided as part of package metadata, meaning any compromised or malicious Composer repository can serve package metadata declaring perforce as a source type with malicious values. This vulnerability is exploitable when installing or updating dependencies from source, including the default behavior when installing dev-prefixed versions. This issue has been fixed in Composer 2.2.27 (2.2 LTS) and 2.9.6 (mainline). If developers are unable to immediately update, they can avoid installing dependencies from source by using --prefer-dist or the preferred-install: dist config setting, and only use trusted Composer repositories as a workaround.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 8.8 HIGH from ADP

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS: 0.016880000 probability, percentile 0.742360000 (date 2026-07-02)

Problem Types: CWE-20 | CWE-78 | CWE-78 CWE-78: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection') | CWE-20 CWE-20: Improper Input Validation | CWE-78 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection')

VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
3.1ADPCVSS8.8HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
3.1[email protected]Secondary8.8HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
3.10b0ca135-0b70-47e7-9f44-1890c2a1c46cSecondary8.8HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
3.1CNADECLARED8.8HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

NVD Known Affected Configurations (CPE 2.3)

TypeVendorProductVersionUpdateEditionLanguage
Application Getcomposer Composer All All All All
Application Getcomposer Composer All All All All

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA Composer Composer affected >= 2.3.0, < 2.9.6 Not specified
CNA Composer Composer affected >= 1.0.0, < 2.2.27 Not specified
ADP Red Hat Red Hat Hardened Images Not specified Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
github.com/composer/composer/security/advisories/GHSA-gqw4-4w2p-838q [email protected] github.com Vendor Advisory
github.com/composer/composer/releases/tag/2.9.6 [email protected] github.com Release Notes
bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi 0b0ca135-0b70-47e7-9f44-1890c2a1c46c bugzilla.redhat.com
access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:8165 0b0ca135-0b70-47e7-9f44-1890c2a1c46c access.redhat.com
security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-40261.json 0b0ca135-0b70-47e7-9f44-1890c2a1c46c security.access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-40261 0b0ca135-0b70-47e7-9f44-1890c2a1c46c access.redhat.com
CVE Program record CVE.ORG www.cve.org canonical
NVD vulnerability detail NVD nvd.nist.gov canonical, analysis

Additional Advisory Data

SourceTimeEvent
ADP2026-04-15T22:00:54.256ZReported to Red Hat.
ADP2026-04-15T20:56:32.182ZMade public.

Solutions

ADP: RHSA-2026:8165: Red Hat Hardened Images

Workarounds

ADP: To mitigate this issue, only run Composer commands on projects and dependencies from trusted sources. Also, use the '--prefer-dist' or the 'preferred-install: dist' configuration setting to prevent Composer from installing dependencies from source.

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