Vulnerability · Published May 8, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M
CVE-2026-41570PHPUnit: Argument injection via newline in PHP INI values forwarded to child processes
High 7.8
In plain English
A high-severity argument injection in phpunit from sebastianbergmann. Proof-of-concept exploit code is public. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.2% (higher than 9% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
Official description
PHPUnit is a testing framework for PHP. In versions 12.5.21 and 13.1.5, PHPUnit forwards PHP INI settings to child processes (used for isolated/PHPT test execution) as -d name=value command-line arguments without neutralizing INI metacharacters. Because PHP's INI parser interprets " as a string delimiter, ; as the start of a comment, and most importantly a newline as a directive separator, a value containing a newline is parsed by the child process as multiple INI directives. An attacker able to influence a single INI value can therefore inject arbitrary additional directives into the child's configuration, including auto_prepend_file, extension, disable_functions, open_basedir, and others. Setting auto_prepend_file to an attacker-controlled path yields remote code execution in the child process. This issue has been patched in versions 12.5.22 and 13.1.6.
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian:12 | phpunit | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-41570 |
| Debian:13 | phpunit | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-41570 |
| Debian:14 | phpunit | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-41570 |
| Packagist | phpunit/phpunit | 12.5.22 | GHSA-qrr6-mg7r-m243 |
| Packagist | phpunit/phpunit | 13.1.6 | GHSA-qrr6-mg7r-m243 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | phpunit | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-41570 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | phpunit | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-41570 |
| Ubuntu:25.10 | phpunit | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-41570 |
| Ubuntu:26.04:LTS | phpunit | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-41570 |
| Ubuntu:26.10 | phpunit | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-41570 |
Affected products (as reported)
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| sebastianbergmann | phpunit | = 12.5.21= 13.1.5 |
Weakness: CWE-93, CWE-88 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
References
- https://github.com/sebastianbergmann/phpunit/security/advisories/GHSA-qrr6-mg7r-m243 x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://github.com/sebastianbergmann/phpunit/pull/6592 x_refsource_MISC