PYSEC-2026-3509

Summary

PraisonAI's template loader accepts GitHub template URIs with refs, for example github:owner/repo/template@v1.0.0. The resolver stores the user-controlled template path and ref verbatim, and the cache layer later joins those values into ~/.praison/cache/templates/github/<owner>/<repo>/<template>/<ref> without normalizing each segment or checking that the final path remains inside the template cache root.

A crafted ref such as ../../../../../../outside-delete-target therefore escapes the cache directory. The first load can write .cache_meta.json outside the cache. If the normal cache hierarchy for the same owner/repo/template has already been created, the same path reaches shutil.rmtree(cache_path) and removes an attacker-selected outside directory before replacing it with cache metadata.

This is distinct from the old template Zip Slip advisory. No malicious archive member is needed, and the PoV disables network access entirely. The bug is in cache-key construction for GitHub template URIs.

Affected versions

Confirmed vulnerable:

• v2.6.0
• v3.9.24
• v3.9.26
• v4.5.126
• v4.5.128
• v4.6.9
• v4.6.10
• v4.6.56
• v4.6.57
• current head 2f9677abb2ea68eab864ee8b6a828fd0141612e1

Recommended affected range: >= 2.6.0, <= 4.6.57.

No fixed version is known at the time of this report.

Impact

An attacker who can cause a user or service to load an attacker-supplied PraisonAI GitHub template URI can:

• create .cache_meta.json outside the template cache directory;
• delete a directory reachable by the PraisonAI process after a normal cache entry exists for the same owner/repo/template prefix;
• corrupt user configuration, project state, or application data reachable by the process permissions.

Root cause

Current-head code path:

• praisonai/templates/resolver.py: GITHUB_PATTERN captures path and ref with broad regex groups and returns them without segment validation. -...