criticalCVSS 9.8Vulnerability

GHSA-j4hj-7hfh-g2f4

# praisonai: `recipe serve` authentication middleware silently disables itself when no secret is set **Researcher:** Kai Aizen — SnailSploit (@SnailSploit), Adversarial & Offensive Security Research **Target:** https://github.com/MervinPraison/PraisonAI --- **Package:** `praisonai` on PyPI **Version tested:** 4.6.48. **File:** `praisonai/recipe/serve.py` (sha256 `491bf8f29e399418260810ba4bf0f6802c6e4aa675628e2be68a9726c15d9b23`). --- ## TL;DR `praisonai/recipe/serve.py:312-410` defines two auth middlewares (`APIKeyAuthMiddleware`, `JWTAuthMiddleware`). Both contain the same "fail open when the secret is unset" branch at the top of their `dispatch`: ```python async def dispatch(self, request, call_next): if request.url.path == "/health": return await call_next(request) expected_key = api_key or os.environ.get("PRAISONAI_API_KEY") if not expected_key: # No key configured, allow request return await call_next(request) ... ``` ```python async def dispatch(self, request, call_next): if request.url.path == "/health": return await call_next(request) secret = jwt_secret or os.environ.get("PRAISONAI_JWT_SECRET") if not secret: return await call_next(request) ... ``` The realistic mis-deploy: 1. operator sets `auth: api-key` (or `auth: jwt`) in their recipe YAML, expecting that line alone to enable auth, 2. operator does not set the corresponding `api_key:` / `jwt_secret:` value in the same YAML, AND 3. operator does not export `PRAISONAI_API_KEY` / `PRAISONAI_JWT_SECRET` in the environment. The middleware silently treats every request as authenticated and forwards it to the recipe-execution route. Combined with the praisonai jobs API having zero auth (a separate finding), operators who paid attention to "I have to set `auth: api-key` to lock this down" still don't get auth on the recipe-serve surface unless they also remember the secret. ## Root cause ``` Expected behavior, after setting

Properties

ghsa_id
GHSA-j4hj-7hfh-g2f4
severity
critical
summary
praisonai: recipe serve auth middleware silently disables itself when no secret is set
cvss_score
9.8
cve_id
GHSA-j4hj-7hfh-g2f4
cvss_vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
is_ghsa_only
true
ghsa_published
2026-06-18T13:56:55Z
source_url
https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-j4hj-7hfh-g2f4
ghsa_updated
2026-06-18T13:56:55Z

Related Entities (5)

REPORTED_BY (1)

[Source]GitHub Advisory Database

VULNERABLE_TO (1)

[Software]pip/praisonai

AFFECTS (1)

[Software]pip/praisonai

HAS_WEAKNESS (2)

[Weakness]Initialization of a Resource with an Insecure Default
[Weakness]Missing Authentication for Critical Function

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