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phpSysInfo EUVDEUVD-2026-67862

| CVE-2026-55584 HIGH
Authentication Bypass by Spoofing (CWE-290)
2026-08-28 https://github.com/phpsysinfo/phpsysinfo GHSA-786w-p5pm-cvgh
7.5
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: https://github.com/phpsysinfo/phpsysinfo
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Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain

  1. Access
    Identify network-exposed phpSysInfo endpoint
  2. Exploit
    Craft HTTP request with spoofed X-Forwarded-For header matching allowed IP
  3. Execution
    PSI_ALLOWED check bypassed via unconditionally trusted header
  4. Impact
    Full system telemetry XML returned to attacker

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A07:2025 - Authentication Failures
ASVS 5.0
V6 - Authentication Anti-spoofing controls
MITRE ATT&CK

1 technique across 1 tactic: Defense Evasion

The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up.

Exploitation Conditions

Exploitation requires that phpSysInfo is network-accessible over HTTP and that the PSI_ALLOWED directive is actively configured in phpsysinfo.ini - this is the specific mechanism being bypassed. The attacker must supply at least one IP address matching the allowlist in the spoofed header; common guesses (127.0.0.1, private RFC1918 ranges, or well-known public IPs) will frequently succeed since the PoC itself used 8.8.8.8. No authentication is required (CVSS PR:N), no user interaction is needed, and exploitation is not constrained by PHP version or web server (verified on PHP 8.2 with Apache). Deployments with no PSI_ALLOWED configured are not affected by this specific bypass - though such deployments are already fully unauthenticated and open. The primary limiting factors are: (1) the phpSysInfo endpoint must be reachable from the attacker's network, and (2) the PSI_ALLOWED feature must be enabled.

Impact

The CVSS 3.1 score of 7.5 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N) accurately models this vulnerability: it is network-exploitable with zero authentication and minimal complexity - a single curl invocation with a spoofed header is sufficient, as the publicly available Exploit-DB PoC (52648) demonstrates. There is no KEV listing, meaning official confirmation of active exploitation is absent at time of analysis; however, the trivially low attack complexity and fully public exploit code make the practical exploitation barrier effectively zero for any internet-exposed instance. Crucially, this bypass only affects deployments where PSI_ALLOWED is configured - the operators most impacted are precisely those who believed they had restricted access. The impact is bounded to confidentiality (C:H, I:N, A:N): the attacker receives reconnaissance-grade system data but cannot modify state or cause denial of service through this vulnerability alone. The CVSS score and the real-world risk signals are well-aligned here - this is a genuine high-priority finding for any exposed phpSysInfo deployment, not a high-CVSS-low-real-risk paper vulnerability.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

An attacker discovers an internet-exposed phpSysInfo instance and issues a single HTTP GET to xml.php with the header X-Forwarded-For set to a known or guessed address from the PSI_ALLOWED list (common candidates include 127.0.0.1, RFC1918 ranges, or publicly known addresses such as 8.8.8.8 as shown in the published PoC). The server resolves the spoofed header as the authoritative client IP, bypasses the allowlist check, and returns the full system information XML including hostname, kernel version, CPU, memory, filesystems, and network interfaces. A working, no-compilation exploit is publicly documented on Exploit-DB (https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/52648).

This Week Schedule remediation this week. Why: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9).
1 public PoC Patch available 2.4% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Aug 28, 2026

phpSysInfo up to and including version 3.4.5 exposes a complete IP allowlist bypass in read_config.php that any unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit by sending a spoofed X-Forwarded-For or Client-IP HTTP header set to any address present in the PSI_ALLOWED configuration. The flaw (CWE-290) renders the application's only access-control mechanism entirely ineffective, allowing full retrieval of system telemetry including hostname, kernel version, CPU model, memory layout, filesystems, and network interface addresses. A working proof-of-concept is publicly available on Exploit-DB; no CISA KEV listing exists at time of analysis.

RemediationAI

Upgrade to phpSysInfo 3.4.6 immediately, available at https://github.com/phpsysinfo/phpsysinfo/releases/tag/v3.4.6; this release applies the fix from commit 019fa2d7e568ea11461adb4bd33da5dc87c4b9ab, which defaults to REMOTE_ADDR and only honors XFF headers from explicitly configured trusted proxy IPs or CIDR ranges via the new TRUSTED_PROXIES directive. If an immediate upgrade is not feasible, the most effective compensating control is to restrict network access to the phpSysInfo endpoint at the firewall or web server level - limiting it to localhost or a dedicated management VLAN completely neutralizes the bypass by preventing external HTTP requests from reaching read_config.php. A secondary option is to remove PSI_ALLOWED and replace access control with HTTP Basic Authentication or mutual TLS configured at the Apache or nginx layer, which cannot be trivially spoofed via request headers; note this requires web server configuration changes and may affect legitimate internal access patterns. Do not rely on PSI_ALLOWED as the sole access control in any version prior to 3.4.6.

Affected VersionsENISA

phpsysinfo < 3.4.6

Affected Packages

composer phpsysinfo/phpsysinfo fix: 3.4.6
euvd phpsysinfo fix: 3.4.6

Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)

Affects your stack

Affects 2 packages in composer, euvd

Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

Technical ContextAI · show details

phpSysInfo is a PHP web application that serves real-time system diagnostics over HTTP. The vulnerable component is read_config.php, which implements IP-based access control via the PSI_ALLOWED directive. The root cause (CWE-290: Authentication Bypass by Spoofing) is that the IP resolution logic unconditionally evaluates HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR first, then HTTP_CLIENT_IP, before falling back to the authoritative REMOTE_ADDR - both of the higher-priority sources are fully attacker-controlled HTTP request headers. Crucially, the code contains no concept of a trusted proxy list, meaning the spoofed headers win even when phpSysInfo is deployed with no reverse proxy in front of it. The affected package is identified by CPE pkg:composer/phpsysinfo/phpsysinfo, versions up to and including 3.4.5. The fix introduced in v3.4.6 (commit 019fa2d7e568ea11461adb4bd33da5dc87c4b9ab) adds a TRUSTED_PROXIES configuration directive and restructures IP resolution to default to REMOTE_ADDR, only honoring XFF/Client-IP when the immediate request originates from an explicitly configured trusted proxy CIDR.

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Severity by source

Vendor (https://github.com/phpsysinfo/phpsysinfo) PRIMARY 7.5 HIGH
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
vuln.today AI 7.5 HIGH

Network-exploitable with no authentication or complexity; impact is confidentiality-only as no integrity modification or availability disruption is possible through this bypass.

3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
4.0 AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Primary rating from Vendor (https://github.com/phpsysinfo/phpsysinfo).

CVSS VectorVendor: https://github.com/phpsysinfo/phpsysinfo

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None

DescriptionCVE.org

Summary

phpSysInfo's PSI_ALLOWED IP allowlist can be trivially bypassed by any unauthenticated remote attacker. The access-control check in read_config.php derives the client IP from the attacker-controlled X-Forwarded-For and Client-IP HTTP headers before falling back to REMOTE_ADDR. An attacker can send X-Forwarded-For: <an allowed IP> to impersonate a trusted address and gain full access to all exposed system information, defeating the only IP-based access restriction the application provides.

Affected component

  • File: read_config.php
  • Versions: all versions up to and including 3.4.x (current main)

Description

When PSI_ALLOWED is configured, read_config.php enforces an IP allowlist. The client IP is resolved as follows:

php
if (isset($_SERVER["HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR"])) {
    $ip = $_SERVER["HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR"];
} else {
    if (isset($_SERVER["HTTP_CLIENT_IP"])) {
        $ip = $_SERVER["HTTP_CLIENT_IP"];
    } else {
        $ip = $_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"];
    }
}

Both HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR and HTTP_CLIENT_IP are fully attacker-controlled request headers. They are trusted unconditionally and take priority over REMOTE_ADDR. There is no concept of a configured/trusted reverse proxy, so even when phpSysInfo is exposed directly (no proxy in front), the spoofed header wins. As a result the allowlist provides no real protection.

Proof of Concept

Verified against phpSysInfo 3.4.x-main-d786ab2 running in a local Docker container (php:8.2-apache).

Deployment with the allowlist (under [main]) restricted to an address the attacker does not own:

ini
; phpsysinfo.ini  ([main] section)
ALLOWED=8.8.8.8

Request without the spoofed header - correctly denied (attacker's real IP is the container gateway 172.17.0.1):

bash
$ curl -s http://localhost:8080/xml.php | head -c 200
Client IP address (172.17.0.1) not allowed.

Request with a spoofed X-Forwarded-For matching the allowlist - bypass, full system information returned:

bash
$ curl -s -H "X-Forwarded-For: 8.8.8.8" http://localhost:8080/xml.php | head -c 200
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<tns:phpsysinfo xmlns:tns="http://phpsysinfo.sourceforge.net/" ...>

The same bypass works with the Client-IP header (HTTP_CLIENT_IP), which is also trusted before REMOTE_ADDR.

Impact

Any remote, unauthenticated attacker can defeat the PSI_ALLOWED access restriction and read the complete system information exposed by phpSysInfo, including hostname, kernel version, CPU model, memory layout, mounted filesystems, and all network interface addresses. This information is valuable for reconnaissance and targeting of further attacks.

Remediation

Use REMOTE_ADDR as the authoritative client IP by default. Only honor X-Forwarded-For / Client-IP when the request originates from an explicitly configured list of trusted proxies, and when honoring it, parse the correct entry from the chain rather than trusting the whole header. Example direction:

php
$ip = $_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"];
if (defined('PSI_TRUSTED_PROXIES') && in_array($ip, $trusted_proxies, true)
    && isset($_SERVER["HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR"])) {
    // take the right-most untrusted hop from the XFF chain
    $parts = array_map('trim', explode(',', $_SERVER["HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR"]));
    $ip = end($parts);
}

Discovery / Credit

  • Reported by: Muhammed Mirac Kayıkci
  • Coordinated disclosure; no third-party systems were tested. Verification performed against a local Docker deployment only.

Technical POC Analysis

The flaw is an authentication bypass via IP spoofing, matching CWE-290 (Authentication Bypass by Spoofing).

Full technical POC analysis - root cause, step-by-step exploitation and patch breakdown - is part of the Pro and Business plans.

Latest POC

1 public PoC link from exploitdb

Sign in to open the public PoC links collected for this CVE.

Executive ViewAI

Why It Matters

phpSysInfo versions 3.4.5 and earlier contain a complete access-control bypass that allows any external attacker to retrieve sensitive system telemetry without authentication or authorization. The vulnerability renders the application's sole security mechanism ineffective, exposing infrastructure details including hostnames, operating systems, hardware specifications, and network topology. Organizations using vulnerable phpSysInfo instances provide adversaries with detailed reconnaissance data to plan targeted attacks against exposed systems.

Business Impact: High
Compensating Controls

Apply vendor patch.

Threat Model

2 threats: Spoofing, Information Disclosure

4-step attack chain with trust boundaries and controls

Full threat model - attack chain, trust boundaries, controls per stage and evidence - is part of the Pro and Business plans.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
2.4%
Top 17% exploitable
Prevalence
Low
niche PHP sysadmin utility, limited enterprise deployment footprint
Threat Intel
1
1 source
Data Quality
8 sources
Confidence: High
EUVD NVD CVE.org EPSS Vulnrichment GHSA Exploit-DB GitHub VulDB

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue
Severity HIGH
CISA KEV No
Public POC Yes
EPSS 2.4%
Patch available Yes
Active threat No
Deciding rule
HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9)
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision
Scheduled
Exploitation
None
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable
Yes
Human Impact
High
Technical Impact
Partial

Priority Score

60
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: +2
CVSS: +38
PoC: +20
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

Authentication bypass attacks exploit flaws in the verification mechanisms that control access to systems and applications.

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