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CVE-2026-55541 – Missing Authentication / Unauthorized Agent Invocation – PraisonAI < 4.6.58

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Summary

CVE-2026-55541 is a missing-authorization vulnerability (CWE-862) in PraisonAI’s praisonai serve subsystem. Although the serve command accepts an --api-key flag intended to protect its API endpoints, the underlying _create_agents_app() and _create_unified_app() functions never wire that credential into the FastAPI application, leaving the exposed agent endpoints reachable without authentication. The issue carries a High severity rating (CVSS 8.8) and affects PraisonAI versions prior to 4.6.58.

Technical details

  • Root cause: praisonai serve agents and praisonai serve unified parse the operator-supplied --api-key value into configuration, but the application factory functions _create_agents_app() and _create_unified_app() never read config["api_key"] or install any authentication/authorization middleware on the resulting FastAPI app.
  • Trigger conditions: An operator runs praisonai serve (agents or unified mode) believing the --api-key flag secures the deployment; no additional network-layer authentication (e.g., a reverse proxy enforcing auth) is placed in front of the service.
  • Attack vector: Network — any unauthenticated actor with network access to the exposed service can directly call the unprotected HTTP endpoints.
  • Exposed/impacted endpoints: POST /agents (executes agent workflows), POST /agents/{name} (invokes a specific agent), and POST /api/v1/agents/{id}/invoke (used for n8n-style integrations).
  • Impact: Unauthenticated remote actors can trigger and invoke agent workflows, resulting in unauthorized execution of agent logic/tools, potential resource and data access depending on the workflow’s capabilities, and abuse such as LLM quota exhaustion.

Affected software

  • PraisonAI (MervinPraison/PraisonAI) — all versions up to and including 4.6.50 that expose the praisonai serve subsystem
  • Fixed in PraisonAI version 4.6.58 and later

Severity

  • CVSS Score: 8.8 (High)
  • Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Mitigation and recommended actions

  • Immediate: Upgrade PraisonAI to version 4.6.58 or later, where the API key check is properly enforced in the serve application factories.
  • If patching is not immediately possible:
    • Do not expose praisonai serve endpoints directly to untrusted networks; restrict access via firewall rules or network segmentation to trusted hosts only.
    • Place a reverse proxy or API gateway in front of the service that independently enforces authentication (e.g., mutual TLS, API gateway auth) rather than relying on the --api-key flag.
    • Monitor access logs for unexpected calls to /agents, /agents/{name}, and /api/v1/agents/{id}/invoke from unrecognized sources.
    • Rotate any credentials or downstream API keys accessible to agent workflows in case of prior unauthorized invocation.

References

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