CVE-2026-114108

HKUDS Vibe-Trading from 0.1.0 before 0.1.7 contains a missing authentication vulnerability that allows unauthenticated attackers to access the FastAPI surface because require_auth() returns early when API_AUTH_KEY is unset. Attackers can post messages to /sessions/{id}/messages to trigger root shell commands via BashTool, upload .py or .sh files via /upload, read session histories, and obtain partial API keys.

HKUDS Vibe-Trading from 0.1.0 before 0.1.7 contains a missing authentication vulnerability that allows unauthenticated attackers to access the FastAPI surface because require_auth() returns early when API_AUTH_KEY is unset. Attackers can post messages to /sessions/{id}/messages to trigger root shell commands via BashTool, upload .py or .sh files via /upload, read session histories, and obtain partial API keys.

HKUDS Vibe-Trading from 0.1.0 before 0.1.7 contains a missing authentication vulnerability that allows unauthenticated attackers to access the FastAPI surface because require_auth() returns early when API_AUTH_KEY is unset. Attackers can post messages to /sessions/{id}/messages to trigger root shell commands via BashTool, upload .py or .sh files via /upload, read session histories, and obtain partial API keys.

Summary:

5 findings — unauthenticated full-API exposure (F1, lead Critical), read-side authorization gap that persists even with API_AUTH_KEY set (F2), unauthenticated file write of .py/.sh/.yaml to a server-returned path (F3), default-permissive CORS that combines with a loopback-only check to grant any browser page on whitelisted localhost ports credentialed cross-origin access (F-A4), and partial API-key disclosure via _mask_secret() (F-A5).

Shared baseline (applies to all 5 findings)

The shipped agent/.env.example line 112 ships # API_AUTH_KEY= commented out. require_auth() at agent/api_server.py line 303 executes if not api_key: return and returns None immediately when API_AUTH_KEY is unset, so every endpoint decorated with dependencies=[Depends(require_auth)] operates as unauthenticated. The shipped Dockerfile does not contain a USER directive, so the FastAPI process runs as uid=0(root) inside the container (verified: docker exec id returns uid=0(root) gid=0(root)). The docker-compose.yml binds 0.0.0.0:8899 with no network restriction.

The only operator action required beyond a clean install is supplying a working LLM API key so the agent loop can complete its tool-call round trip — this is the normal first step to make the agent functional, not an additional security opt-in. F-A4 and F-A5 do not require an LLM key (see per-finding notes); F1 and F3 do not require an LLM key for the unauth surface itself, only for the chained RCE demonstration in F1.

Reproducer environment (common)

git clone https://github.com/HKUDS/Vibe-Trading.git
cd Vibe-Trading
git checkout 7452610113a75529b5d55fd2217bb17f7bec66f7   # v0.1.6 + 1 frontend fix; same vuln state as v0.1.6
cp agent/.env.example agent/.env
# (For F1 chained demo only:) edit agent/.env to set OPENROUTER_API_KEY=<real key>
docker compose up -d
# port 8899 is now reachable; HOST below is the docker host's IP from the attacker's perspective

Note on the HOST placeholder used throughout the per-finding "Steps to observe" blocks below: replace HOST with the address you reach the docker host on — typically localhost (or 127.0.0.1) if you are running the reproducer on the same machine as the container. All curl commands below assume this substitution.

Finding 1 — Critical: Unauthenticated network client reaches shell execution via POST /sessions/{id}/messages

• Severity: Critical
• CVSS v3.1: 9.8 — AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
• CVSS v4.0: 10.0 — AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H
• CWE: CWE-306 (Missing Authentication for Critical Function); chains into CWE-78 (Group B, F6)

Affected files:

• agent/api_server.py:303 — if not api_key: return early return in require_auth()
• agent/api_server.py:736 — @app.post("/sessions/{session_id}/messages", dependencies=[Depends(require_auth)]) (the dependency is a no-op when API_AUTH_KEY is unset)
• agent/src/tools/bash_tool.py:44-46 — subprocess.run(command, shell=True, cwd=cwd) with command read from kwargs['command'] (full bug detail tracked in GHSA-2 / Group B / F6)

Intent vs actual: The session API is intended to serve authenticated users only. When API_AUTH_KEY is unset, require_auth() returns None immediately and dependencies=[Depends(require_auth)] becomes a no-op. Any anonymous TCP client to port 8899 can therefore create a session, post a message, and receive the LLM agent's response. The LLM ReAct agent — given a natural-language request to run a command — selects BashTool from the auto-discovered registry, which calls subprocess.run(command, shell=True) with the LLM-emitted string. The container has no USER directive, so the resulting process runs as uid=0(root).

Steps to observe:

1. Start the server per the shared reproducer above (with a working OPENROUTER_API_KEY set in agent/.env). Confirm `curl -fs…

HKUDS Vibe-Trading from 0.1.0 before 0.1.7 contains a missing authentication vulnerability that allows unauthenticated attackers to access the FastAPI surface because require_auth() returns early when API_AUTH_KEY is unset. Attackers can post messages to /sessions/{id}/messages to trigger root shell commands via BashTool, upload .py or .sh files via /upload, read session histories, and obtain partial API keys.

HKUDS Vibe-Trading from 0.1.0 before 0.1.7 contains a missing authentication vulnerability that allows unauthenticated attackers to access the FastAPI surface because require_auth() returns early when API_AUTH_KEY is unset. Attackers can post messages to /sessions/{id}/messages to trigger root shell commands via BashTool, upload .py or .sh files via /upload, read session histories, and obtain partial API keys.

Summary:

5 findings — unauthenticated full-API exposure (F1, lead Critical), read-side authorization gap that persists even with API_AUTH_KEY set (F2), unauthenticated file write of .py/.sh/.yaml to a server-returned path (F3), default-permissive CORS that combines with a loopback-only check to grant any browser page on whitelisted localhost ports credentialed cross-origin access (F-A4), and partial API-key disclosure via _mask_secret() (F-A5).

Shared baseline (applies to all 5 findings)

The shipped agent/.env.example line 112 ships # API_AUTH_KEY= commented out. require_auth() at agent/api_server.py line 303 executes if not api_key: return and returns None immediately when API_AUTH_KEY is unset, so every endpoint decorated with dependencies=[Depends(require_auth)] operates as unauthenticated. The shipped Dockerfile does not contain a USER directive, so the FastAPI process runs as uid=0(root) inside the container (verified: docker exec id returns uid=0(root) gid=0(root)). The docker-compose.yml binds 0.0.0.0:8899 with no network restriction.

The only operator action required beyond a clean install is supplying a working LLM API key so the agent loop can complete its tool-call round trip — this is the normal first step to make the agent functional, not an additional security opt-in. F-A4 and F-A5 do not require an LLM key (see per-finding notes); F1 and F3 do not require an LLM key for the unauth surface itself, only for the chained RCE demonstration in F1.

Reproducer environment (common)

git clone https://github.com/HKUDS/Vibe-Trading.git
cd Vibe-Trading
git checkout 7452610113a75529b5d55fd2217bb17f7bec66f7   # v0.1.6 + 1 frontend fix; same vuln state as v0.1.6
cp agent/.env.example agent/.env
# (For F1 chained demo only:) edit agent/.env to set OPENROUTER_API_KEY=<real key>
docker compose up -d
# port 8899 is now reachable; HOST below is the docker host's IP from the attacker's perspective

Note on the HOST placeholder used throughout the per-finding "Steps to observe" blocks below: replace HOST with the address you reach the docker host on — typically localhost (or 127.0.0.1) if you are running the reproducer on the same machine as the container. All curl commands below assume this substitution.

Finding 1 — Critical: Unauthenticated network client reaches shell execution via POST /sessions/{id}/messages

• Severity: Critical
• CVSS v3.1: 9.8 — AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
• CVSS v4.0: 10.0 — AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H
• CWE: CWE-306 (Missing Authentication for Critical Function); chains into CWE-78 (Group B, F6)

Affected files:

• agent/api_server.py:303 — if not api_key: return early return in require_auth()
• agent/api_server.py:736 — @app.post("/sessions/{session_id}/messages", dependencies=[Depends(require_auth)]) (the dependency is a no-op when API_AUTH_KEY is unset)
• agent/src/tools/bash_tool.py:44-46 — subprocess.run(command, shell=True, cwd=cwd) with command read from kwargs['command'] (full bug detail tracked in GHSA-2 / Group B / F6)

Intent vs actual: The session API is intended to serve authenticated users only. When API_AUTH_KEY is unset, require_auth() returns None immediately and dependencies=[Depends(require_auth)] becomes a no-op. Any anonymous TCP client to port 8899 can therefore create a session, post a message, and receive the LLM agent's response. The LLM ReAct agent — given a natural-language request to run a command — selects BashTool from the auto-discovered registry, which calls subprocess.run(command, shell=True) with the LLM-emitted string. The container has no USER directive, so the resulting process runs as uid=0(root).

Steps to observe:

1. Start the server per the shared reproducer above (with a working OPENROUTER_API_KEY set in agent/.env). Confirm `curl -fs…