CVE-2026-40261VulnerabilityPublished 18 Apr 2026Updated 6 Jul 2026

BIT-composer-2026-40261: Composer has Command Injection via Malicious Perforce Reference

Affects composerSource GCVE Database

Not known to be exploited : upgrade to 2.9.6 or 2.2.27 soon.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 12:29 UTC

Severity

High

Rated by Threat Radar · No CVSS score from NVD or the CNA

EPSS: 1.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 76% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 2.9.6, 2.2.27

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 18 Apr 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade composer to 2.9.6 or 2.2.27.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Bitnamicomposer`pkg:bitnami/composer`Other threats	Affected >=1.0.0 <2.2.27 >=2.3.0 <2.9.6	Fixed in 2.2.27 2.9.6

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

A fix is available in Composer versions 2.2.27 and 2.9.6. Users should upgrade to these versions or later. If immediate upgrade is not possible, users can mitigate risk by avoiding installing dependencies from source using the --prefer-dist option or setting preferred-install to dist in Composer configuration. Additionally, only trusted Composer repositories should be used to prevent malicious package metadata injection.

Description

Composer, a PHP dependency manager, contains a command injection vulnerability in versions 1.0 through 2.2.26 and 2.3 through 2.9.5. The vulnerability exists in the Perforce::syncCodeBase() and Perforce::generateP4Command() methods, which improperly escape user-supplied parameters, allowing arbitrary command injection. This can be exploited via malicious package metadata from compromised or malicious Composer repositories when installing or updating dependencies from source. The issue is fixed in Composer 2.2.27 and 2.9.6. Workarounds include avoiding source installs by using --prefer-dist or trusted repositories.

Impact

An attacker controlling or compromising a Composer repository can execute arbitrary shell commands on a developer's system during dependency installation or update processes that involve source installs. This can lead to remote code execution on the developer's machine. The vulnerability affects all users installing or updating dependencies from source with affected Composer versions. It does not require Perforce to be installed on the target system. There are no known exploits in the wild at this time.

Summary

Composer versions >=1.0.0 <2.2.27 and >=2.3.0 <2.9.6 have a command injection vulnerability in the Perforce integration methods. The Perforce::syncCodeBase() method appends the $sourceReference parameter directly to shell commands without proper escaping, and Perforce::generateP4Command() interpolates user-supplied Perforce connection parameters from the source URL without escaping. This allows an attacker to inject arbitrary shell commands via crafted source reference or URL values in package metadata. Because package metadata can come from any Composer repository, a compromised or malicious repository can serve malicious metadata to trigger this vulnerability during dependency installation or updates from source, including default behavior for dev-prefixed versions. The vulnerability is fixed in Composer 2.2.27 (LTS) and 2.9.6 (mainline).

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 6 Jul 2026, 23:06 UTC

Technical details

References

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