GHSA-h5fh-7hwr-97mw

Suggest an improvement
Source
https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-h5fh-7hwr-97mw
Import Source
https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2026/05/GHSA-h5fh-7hwr-97mw/GHSA-h5fh-7hwr-97mw.json
JSON Data
https://api.osv.dev/v1/vulns/GHSA-h5fh-7hwr-97mw
Aliases
Published
2026-05-08T22:22:36Z
Modified
2026-05-08T22:41:25Z
Severity
  • 4.1 (Medium) CVSS_V3 - CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:N/A:N CVSS Calculator
Summary
Kimai has an arbitrary file read in its invoice PDF renderer (admin)
Details

Summary

Users with the role System-Admin (ROLE_SYSTE_ADMIN) and the permission upload_invoice_template can upload PDF invoice templates, which can call pdfContext.setOption('associated_files', ...) inside the sandboxed Twig render.

This is forwarded to mPDF's SetAssociatedFiles(), whose writer calls file_get_contents($entry['path']) during PDF output and embeds the bytes as a FlateDecode stream in the PDF. Any file readable by the PHP worker is returned to the attacker inside the rendered invoice.

Root cause

  1. src/Twig/SecurityPolicy/StrictPolicy.php:123-128 explicitly whitelists PdfContext::setOption():

    if ($obj instanceof PdfContext) {
        if ($lcm !== 'setoption') { throw ...; }
        return;
    }
    
  2. src/Pdf/MPdfConverter.php keeps associated_files in the pass-through allowlist:

    $allowed = ['mode','format','default_font_size','default_font', ... , 'associated_files','additional_xmp_rdf'];
    

    and then forwards it to mPDF:

    if (array_key_exists('associated_files', $options) && is_array($options['associated_files'])) {
        $associatedFiles = $options['associated_files'];
        unset($options['associated_files']);
    }
    ...
    $mpdf->SetAssociatedFiles($associatedFiles);
    
  3. mPDF 8.3.1 MetadataWriter::writeAssociatedFiles() calls file_get_contents, which respects PHP stream wrappers:

    if (isset($file['path'])) {
        $fileContent = @file_get_contents($file['path']);
    }
    ...
    $filestream = gzcompress($fileContent);
    $this->writer->write('<</Type /EmbeddedFile');
    

The sandbox and the option allowlist were both written defensively (short whitelists, not blacklists), but neither side considered that associated_files is a PDF/A file-embedding feature whose path key is a sink.

Fix

The implemented fix has two aspects:

  1. The PdfContext now works with a strict allow-list, that excludes associated_files
  2. The MPdfConverter now removes any path from the $associatedFiles array, which can still be used by plugins:
        if (\count($associatedFiles) > 0) {
            // remove "path" so mPDF will not use file_get_contents() on local files
            // callers must pre-read and pass the bytes via "content"
            $associatedFiles = array_map(static function ($entry): array {
                if (!\is_array($entry)) {
                    return [];
                }

                if (\array_key_exists('path', $entry)) {
                    unset($entry['path']);
                }

                return $entry;
            }, $associatedFiles);
            $mpdf->SetAssociatedFiles($associatedFiles);
        }

Database specific
{
    "cwe_ids":  [
        "CWE-22"
    ],
    "github_reviewed":  true,
    "github_reviewed_at":  "2026-05-08T22:22:36Z",
    "nvd_published_at":  "2026-05-08T04:16:24Z",
    "severity":  "MODERATE"
}
References

Affected packages

Packagist / kimai/kimai

Package

Name
kimai/kimai
Purl
pkg:composer/kimai/kimai

Affected ranges

Type
ECOSYSTEM
Events
Introduced
2.32.0
Fixed
2.56

Affected versions

2.*
2.32.0
2.33.0
2.34.0
2.35.0
2.35.1
2.36.0
2.36.1
2.37.0
2.38.0
2.39.0
2.40.0
2.41.0
2.42.0
2.43.0
2.44.0
2.45.0
2.46.0
2.47.0
2.48.0
2.49.0
2.50.0
2.51.0
2.52.0
2.53.0
2.54.0
2.55.0

Database specific

last_known_affected_version_range
"<= 2.55"
source
"https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2026/05/GHSA-h5fh-7hwr-97mw/GHSA-h5fh-7hwr-97mw.json"