PHPUnit: Argument injection via newline in PHP INI values forwarded to child processes

Exploitation

No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.

CVSS

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

EPSS

No dated EPSS signal available.

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

Impact 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 autoprependfile, extension, disablefunctions, openbasedir, and others. Setting autoprependfile to an attacker-controlled path yields remote code execution in the child process. Sources of INI values that participate in the attack: - <ini name="…" value="…"/ entries in phpunit.xml / phpunit.xml.dist - INI settings inherited from the host PHP runtime via inigetall() Threat Model Exploitation requires the attacker to control the content…

Published by the source

22 Apr 2026, 14:56 UTC

Last modified by the source

22 Apr 2026, 14:56 UTC

Source last checked

26 Oct 2026, 14:39 UTC

1. Revision 1 · created · 26 Oct 2026

   Published from ghsa record GHSA-mh6w-vxff-9wqp

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# Patch Next advisory brief: GHSA-mh6w-vxff-9wqp

Advisory: PHPUnit: Argument injection via newline in PHP INI values forwarded to child processes
IDs: GHSA-mh6w-vxff-9wqp
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/ghsa-mh6w-vxff-9wqp (revision 1, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 14:39 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: High (CVSS 7.8)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor fix available; fixed versions by package: phpunit/phpunit 13.1.6, 12.5.22. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- Packagist phpunit/phpunit: affected >= 12.5.21, < 12.5.22; >= 13.1.5, < 13.1.6; fixed in 12.5.22, 13.1.6

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- Packagist phpunit/phpunit: check the installed version with your package manager.

## Supported action
Upgrade each affected component to a fixed version on its release line. For a transitive dependency, upgrade the parent package or add an override or constraint, then regenerate the lockfile. Redeploy every environment that ran an affected version.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on phpunit/phpunit.
- Repeat the inspection and confirm that only fixed versions remain installed.

## Rollback considerations
- Keep the previous lockfile and deployment artifact. Rolling back reinstates the vulnerable version, so apply any documented mitigation while you fix forward.

## Unresolved questions
- Which deployments run an affected version?
- Exploitation status can change. Check again before lowering the priority.
- Mark the work resolved only after the fixed version is verified in production.

## Sources
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-mh6w-vxff-9wqp (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-mh6w-vxff-9wqp lists affected ranges: Packagist phpunit/phpunit >=12.5.21 =13.1.5 <13.1.6)

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