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CVE-2026-55534 – Authentication Bypass / Unauthenticated RCE – PraisonAI 4.6.34–4.6.57

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Summary

CVE-2026-55534 is a missing-authentication vulnerability (CWE-306) in PraisonAI, an open-source multi-agent AI framework. The serve agents CLI command accepts an --api-key parameter intended to protect the exposed HTTP server, but the underlying _create_agents_app() function fails to enforce this authentication on the /agents and /agents/{agent_name} POST endpoints. As a result, a remote, unauthenticated attacker can invoke and execute configured agents even when an API key was explicitly configured, giving the issue a HIGH severity rating of 8.6.

Technical details

  • Root cause: The _create_agents_app() function, which builds the FastAPI/HTTP application served by praisonai serve agents, does not apply the API key check to the POST handlers for /agents and /agents/{agent_name}, even though the --api-key flag is documented and accepted by the CLI.
  • Trigger conditions: An operator runs praisonai serve agents with --api-key set, believing the endpoint is protected, and exposes the service to a network (including the internet).
  • Attack vector: Network-based (AV:N), low attack complexity (AC:L), no privileges required (PR:N), no user interaction (UI:N) — an attacker simply sends unauthenticated POST requests to the exposed agent endpoints.
  • Impact: Unauthorized invocation and execution of any agent configured on the server. Depending on what the configured agents are capable of (e.g., shell/tool access, file operations, external API calls), this can lead to data exposure, unauthorized actions being taken on the attacker’s behalf, and resource exhaustion — reflected in the CVSS impact subscores of Confidentiality: Low, Integrity: Low, Availability: High.

Affected software

  • Product: PraisonAI (MervinPraison/PraisonAI)
  • Vulnerable versions: 4.6.34 through 4.6.57 (inclusive)
  • Fixed version: 4.6.58

Severity

  • CVSS v3.1 Base Score: 8.6 (High)
  • Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:H

Mitigation and recommended actions

  • Immediate: Upgrade PraisonAI to version 4.6.58 or later, which corrects the authentication enforcement in _create_agents_app() so the --api-key parameter is properly validated on the /agents and /agents/{agent_name} endpoints.
  • If immediate patching is not possible:
    • Do not expose the praisonai serve agents endpoint directly to untrusted networks or the public internet; restrict access to trusted internal networks only.
    • Place the service behind a reverse proxy or API gateway that enforces its own authentication/authorization independent of the application’s built-in --api-key check.
    • Use network-level controls (firewall rules, security groups, VPN-only access) to limit which hosts can reach the /agents endpoints.
    • Monitor logs for unexpected or unauthenticated POST requests to /agents and /agents/{agent_name} as an indicator of exploitation attempts.

References

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