Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessDiscover exposed FrankenPHP web root
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ExploitRequest default phpinfo() page
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ImpactHarvest env secrets and configuration
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A01:2025 - Broken Access Control
ASVS 5.0
V14 - Data Protection Data exposure prevention
MITRE ATT&CK
2 techniques across 2 tactics: Collection, Discovery 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 the running container is built from a FrankenPHP official Debian or Alpine Docker image PRIOR to 1.12.5 AND that the derived image did NOT overwrite the default /app/public/index.php placeholder (which calls phpinfo()). Deployments that follow the documented pattern and supply their own /app/public/index.php are not affected, and any already-built derived image must be rebuilt or given an application index to remove the placeholder. The limiting factor is therefore this specific non-default deployment state: images with a real application entrypoint, or those rebuilt on 1.12.5+, are not exploitable. Where the precondition holds, no authentication, user interaction, or special network position is needed - a single remote unauthenticated HTTP GET to the web root suffices. |
| Impact | Signals are consistent and point to a genuine but moderate-severity information-disclosure issue rather than a critical priority. The CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N, 5.3) describes remote, unauthenticated, no-interaction access with only low confidentiality impact and no integrity or availability impact - matching CWE-200. Exploitation status is 'no public exploit identified at time of analysis': the input provides no CISA KEV listing and no POC flag. No EPSS score was supplied, so exploitation probability cannot be quantified. The critical caveat is that the CVSS vector assumes an already-vulnerable deployment: per the description the flaw only manifests in images DERIVED from the official FrankenPHP Debian/Alpine Docker images that fail to overwrite the default /app/public/index.php placeholder running phpinfo(). Images built with the documented pattern (shipping their own index.php) are not affected. So while CVSS correctly shows no attacker-side prerequisites, real-world exposure is gated by a victim-side misconfiguration, which materially narrows the affected population and suggests opportunistic rather than widespread exploitation. Practical risk rises sharply if an exposed phpinfo() reveals environment variables holding live secrets (DB credentials, API keys); in that case downstream impact can exceed the base C:L rating, so confirmed exposures should be treated as urgent even though the base score is only Medium. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | A developer builds a production image on top of the official FrankenPHP Debian or Alpine base but never replaces the stock /app/public/index.php, so the container serves a phpinfo() diagnostics page at the web root. A remote, unauthenticated attacker simply requests the site root over HTTP and reads back environment variables, loaded extensions, PHP directives, software versions, and system paths - potentially harvesting secrets injected via environment. No public exploit is required; it is a direct, low-complexity HTTP request against a misconfigured deployment. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Oct 13, 2026
FrankenPHP's official Debian and Alpine Docker images prior to 1.12.5 ship a placeholder /app/public/index.php that executes phpinfo(), so any derived image that never replaced that file serves a full diagnostics page from its web root; a single unauthenticated HTTP GET (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N, 5.3) discloses environment variables used for secrets, PHP configuration directives, loaded extensions, software versions, and filesystem paths. The precondition is narrow and non-default: only containers built from those official base images and left with the untouched placeholder are exposed, while deployments that supply their own /app/public/index.php per the documented pattern are not affected. There is no confirmed active exploitation (not in CISA KEV) and no public exploit code identified at time of analysis; the fix is a simple base-image bump to 1.12.5 plus a rebuild of every derived image, since existing derived images keep the placeholder even after the upstream fix.
RemediationAI
Upgrade the base image reference to the patched release - vendor-released patch: 1.12.5, published as the tag caddy/v1.12.5 (https://github.com/php/frankenphp/releases/tag/caddy/v1.12.5) - and then rebuild all derived images, because a derived image that was built earlier retains the phpinfo() placeholder in its layer history even after the upstream fix lands; simply pulling 1.12.5 without rebuilding downstream images leaves them exposed. Where an immediate base-image bump is not feasible, add an explicit COPY ./index.php /app/public/index.php (or copy your application's public directory) to the derived Dockerfile so the placeholder is overwritten at build time, or delete /app/public/index.php in the build step; note that deleting it from a running container with docker exec is ephemeral and disappears on container recreation. Deployments that cannot be rebuilt right away should either block HTTP access to the web root at the reverse proxy/WAF - with the trade-off that blanket denial of / or /index.php can break legitimate routes, so target only the unscoped requests if the app has real endpoints - or, if the container is not serving user traffic at all, stop it until it is rebuilt. Independently of the image fix, treat the exposure as a credential-disclosure event wherever an unpatched image ran in production: audit and rotate every secret passed as a plain environment variable (database passwords, API keys, cloud tokens) and move them to file-based or secret-manager injection via Caddy/FrankenPHP configuration so that a future phpinfo-style leak cannot expose them. Full details are in the vendor advisory at https://github.com/php/frankenphp/security/advisories/GHSA-cj57-c655-p798.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in euvd
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
FrankenPHP is a Go-based application server for PHP built on Caddy and distributed primarily as Debian and Alpine Docker images that follow the conventional /app/public document root layout and /usr/local/bin/docker-php-entrypoint startup path. The root cause is a build-time packaging defect mapped to CWE-200 (Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor): the Dockerfile and alpine.Dockerfile RUN steps contained the instruction echo '<?php phpinfo();' > /app/public/index.php, which wrote a phpinfo() call directly into the image's web root rather than merely generating a scaffolding file. phpinfo() renders environment variables (which in containerized deployments routinely carry database passwords, API tokens, and cloud credentials injected via env), PHP INI directives, loaded extensions and their build flags, PHP and server version strings, and absolute filesystem paths - all useful reconnaissance material for chaining into further attacks. The remediation in PR 2524 replaced the runtime echo with a build-time COPY --link package/content/index.php /app/public/index.php of a static FrankenPHP test/welcome page in both Dockerfiles (commit 17940ff2ee188a1e48aabd10c095df72b42539e0, released as caddy/v1.12.5), removing phpinfo from the shipped artifact entirely. Note that the affected CPE cpe:2.3:a:php:frankenphp:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* covers the whole pre-1.12.5 range, but exploitability is conditional on the deployment state described above rather than on the version alone.
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
Remote unauthenticated HTTP request with no interaction (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N); only confidentiality is affected, kept at C:L for config/info disclosure though exposed env secrets could justify higher.
Primary rating from Vendor (GitHub_M).
CVSS VectorVendor: GitHub_M
Lifecycle Timeline
1DescriptionCVE.org
FrankenPHP is a modern application server for PHP. Prior to 1.12.5, the official FrankenPHP Debian and Alpine Docker images include a default /app/public/index.php that executes phpinfo(). A derived image that does not overwrite this placeholder serves the diagnostics page in production and can disclose environment variables used for secrets, PHP configuration directives, loaded extensions, software versions, and system paths. Images built using the documented pattern with their own /app/public/index.php are not affected, and already derived images must be rebuilt or supplied with an application index to remove the exposed placeholder. This issue is fixed in version 1.12.5.
Threat Intelligence Overview
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.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Information disclosure occurs when an application unintentionally exposes sensitive data that aids attackers in reconnaissance or directly compromises security.
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CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
GitHub
Exploit-DB