The Composer method VcsDriver::getFileContent() with user-controlled $file or $identifier arguments is susceptible to an argument injection vulnerability. It can be leveraged to gain arbitrary command execution if the Mercurial or the Git driver are used.

This led to a vulnerability on Packagist.org and Private Packagist, i.e., using the composer.json readme field as a vector for injecting parameters into the $file argument for the Mercurial driver or via the $identifier argument for the Git and Mercurial drivers.

Composer itself can be attacked through branch names by anyone controlling a Git or Mercurial repository, which is explicitly listed by URL in a project's composer.json.

To the best of our knowledge, this was not actively exploited. The vulnerability has been patched on Packagist.org and Private Packagist within a day of the vulnerability report.

References

• GHSA-x7cr-6qr6-2hh6
• https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-24828
• composer/composer@2c40c53
• https://www.tenable.com/security/tns-2022-09
• https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/GWT6LDSRY7SFMTDZWJ4MS2ZBXHL7VQEF/
• https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/QD7JQWL6C4GVROO25DTXWYWM6BPOPPCG/
• https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/625MT3IKWKFVIWLSYZFSXHVUA2LES7YQ/
• https://github.com/FriendsOfPHP/security-advisories/blob/master/composer/composer/CVE-2022-24828.yaml