Is this vulnerability remotely exploitable?

It is not directly exploitable over the network; the attack requires someone to run Composer locally or in CI against a project whose root composer.json (or related config) has been crafted by an attacker. From the attacker's perspective, this can be "remote" if they can convince a victim to clone and run Composer on a malicious project.

What level of access does an attacker need to exploit this issue?

The attacker needs the ability to control or influence the root composer.json (or configuration directory) that the victim uses, specifically to define a Perforce VCS repository with malicious parameter values. No additional authentication within Composer is required beyond this configuration control.

What is the safest general fix pattern for developers/maintainers?

Refactor command construction to avoid shell-based interpolation of untrusted data, instead using safe process execution primitives that pass arguments separately and validating all externally controlled fields to strict, expected formats before use.

Severity:

HIGH RISK

(7.8)

Command Injection via Unescaped Perforce Parameters (CWE-78) in Composer VCS Support

CVE-2026-40176

Published:

Apr 15, 2026

Status:

Analyzed

Summary

Affected Context

Exploit Preconditions

Why This Happens

Potential Impact

General Mitigation Guidance

How Teams Detect Issues Like This

Frequently Asked Questions

Source

NDV

Recent Vulnerabilities

CWE-74;CWE-89

HIGH RISK

HIGH

(7.3)

SQL Injection via Unsanitized ID Parameter (CWE-89) in Pharmacy Sales and Inventory System /ajax.php

Database Compromise and Data Integrity Loss

April 27, 2026

CWE-863

HIGH RISK

HIGH

(8.5)

Incorrect Authorization (CWE-863) in OpenClaw chat.send Session Management

Privilege Escalation and Unauthorized Session Control

April 27, 2026

Vulnerability Type

Category:

Command Injection

CWE:

CWE-20;CWE-78

Impact:

Remote Code Execution in Composer client context

Severity:

HIGH RISK

(7.8)

CVSS Version:

3.1

Vulnerability Type

Category:

Command Injection

CWE:

CWE-20;CWE-78

Impact:

Remote Code Execution in Composer client context

Severity:

HIGH RISK

(7.8)

CVSS Version:

3.1

Catch This CVE While Code Is Being Written

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355 Bryant St. San Francisco, CA 94107, USA

Ask AI for summary of CodeAnt

Command Injection via Unescaped Perforce Parameters (CWE-78) in Composer VCS Support

Summary

Affected Context

Exploit Preconditions

Why This Happens

Potential Impact

General Mitigation Guidance

How Teams Detect Issues Like This

Frequently Asked Questions

Source

Recent Vulnerabilities

HIGH RISK

HIGH

(7.3)

SQL Injection via Unsanitized ID Parameter (CWE-89) in Pharmacy Sales and Inventory System /ajax.php

HIGH RISK

HIGH

(8.5)

Incorrect Authorization (CWE-863) in OpenClaw chat.send Session Management

Vulnerability Type

Vulnerability Type

Vulnerability Type

Catch This CVE While Code Is Being Written

Ship clean & secure code faster

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