Medium severity · published Apr 10, 2026
CVE-2026-40159
PraisonAI Exposes Sensitive Environment Variable via Untrusted MCP Subprocess Execution
5.5
CVSS
0.2%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
PraisonAI is a multi-agent teams system. Prior to 4.5.128, PraisonAI’s MCP (Model Context Protocol) integration allows spawning background servers via stdio using user-supplied command strings (e.g., MCP("npx -y @smithery/cli ...")). These commands are executed through Python’s subprocess module. By default, the implementation forwards the entire parent process environment to the spawned subprocess. As a result, any MCP command executed in this manner inherits all environment variables from the host process, including sensitive data such as API keys, authentication tokens, and database credentials. This behavior introduces a security risk when untrusted or third-party commands are used. In common scenarios where MCP tools are invoked via package runners such as npx -y, arbitrary code from external or potentially compromised packages may execute with access to these inherited environment variables. This creates a risk of unintended credential exposure and enables potential supply chain attacks through silent exfiltration of secrets. This vulnerability is fixed in 4.5.128.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.2% · higher than 8% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
PR
PraisonAI · MervinPraison
< 4.5.128 · source: vendor, NVD
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-40159
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-40159
Vendor Advisory
https://github.com/MervinPraison/PraisonAI/security/advisories/GHSA-pj2r-f9mw-vrcq
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