Improper Input Validation Affecting composer package, versions <2.9.6-r0


Severity

Recommended
low

Based on default assessment until relevant scores are available.

Threat Intelligence

EPSS
0.02% (7th percentile)

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  • Snyk IDSNYK-ALPINE323-COMPOSER-16073422
  • published15 Apr 2026
  • disclosed15 Apr 2026

Introduced: 15 Apr 2026

CVE-2026-40176  (opens in a new tab)
CWE-20  (opens in a new tab)
CWE-78  (opens in a new tab)

How to fix?

Upgrade Alpine:3.23 composer to version 2.9.6-r0 or higher.

NVD Description

Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream composer package and not the composer package as distributed by Alpine. See How to fix? for Alpine:3.23 relevant fixed versions and status.

Composer is a dependency manager for PHP. Versions 1.0 through 2.2.26 and 2.3 through 2.9.5 contain a command injection vulnerability in the Perforce::generateP4Command() method, which constructs shell commands by interpolating user-supplied Perforce connection parameters (port, user, client) without proper escaping. An attacker can inject arbitrary commands through these values in a malicious composer.json declaring a Perforce VCS repository, leading to command execution in the context of the user running Composer, even if Perforce is not installed. VCS repositories are only loaded from the root composer.json or the composer config directory, so this cannot be exploited through composer.json files of packages installed as dependencies. Users are at risk if they run Composer commands on untrusted projects with attacker-supplied composer.json files. This issue has been fixed in Composer 2.2.27 (2.2 LTS) and 2.9.6 (mainline).

CVSS Base Scores

version 3.1