GitHub Advisoryadvisory · Packagist
GHSA-pjhx-3c3w-9v23 API Platform Core vulnerable to cross-user attribute leak in JSON:API and HAL item normalizers due to missing isCacheKeySafe gate
MEDIUM
Official page ↗
- Aliases
- CVE-2026-49858
- Ecosystem
- Packagist
- Packages
- api-platform/core, api-platform/json-api, api-platform/hal
- Severity
- Moderate
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
- Weaknesses
- CWE-524, CWE-639
- Reviewed
- 2026-07-10
Affected packages
• Packagist api-platform/core: >= 2.6.0, < 4.1.29 → fixed in 4.1.29
• Packagist api-platform/core: >= 4.2.0, < 4.2.25 → fixed in 4.2.25
• Packagist api-platform/core: >= 4.3.0, < 4.3.8 → fixed in 4.3.8
• Packagist api-platform/json-api: >= 4.0.0, < 4.1.29 → fixed in 4.1.29
• Packagist api-platform/json-api: >= 4.2.0, < 4.2.25 → fixed in 4.2.25
• Packagist api-platform/json-api: >= 4.3.0, < 4.3.8 → fixed in 4.3.8
• Packagist api-platform/hal: >= 4.0.0, < 4.1.29 → fixed in 4.1.29
• Packagist api-platform/hal: >= 4.2.0, < 4.2.25 → fixed in 4.2.25
• Packagist api-platform/hal: >= 4.3.0, < 4.3.8 → fixed in 4.3.8
Description
Impact
`#[ApiProperty(security: ...)]` is evaluated per request to decide whether a property is exposed. The `componentsCache` arrays in `ApiPlatform\JsonApi\Serializer\ItemNormalizer` and `ApiPlatform\Hal\Serializer\ItemNormalizer` are keyed on `$context['cache_key']`, which is set unconditionally before delegating to the parent normalizer. The component structure (attributes, relationships, links) computed for one request can therefore be reused for a subsequent request whose user has a different set of accessible properties. A user with lower privileges may end up seeing the structure of properties that the security predicate would otherwise have hidden for them.
This is the same vulnerability class as GHSA-428q-q3vv-3fq3 / CVE-2025-31485, which fixed only the GraphQL `ItemNormalizer`. The JSON:API and HAL paths were not addressed at the time.
Exploitation conditions
Exploitation requires all of the following to coincide:
• The application exposes a resource via the JSON:API and/or HAL formats.
• At least one property of that resource uses `#[ApiProperty(security: ...)]` with a predicate whose result depends on the current user (or on per-request state).
• A request from a user for whom the predicate evaluates to `true` populates `componentsCache` before a request from a user for whom the predicate evaluates to `false`, within the lifetime of the same PHP process.
• The deployment uses a long-running PHP runtime that keeps the normalizer instance alive across requests (FrankenPHP worker mode, RoadRunner, Swoole, ReactPHP, etc.). With classic `php-fpm` workers the cache only survives the duration of a single request, which makes the issue much harder to observe in practice.
Patches
• 4.1.29
• 4.2.25
• 4.3.8
All three branches receive patched releases of `api-platform/core`, `api-platform/json-api`, and `api-platform/hal`.
Workarounds
Override the JSON:API and HAL `ItemNormalizer` services to gate `$context['cache_key']` with a resource-class security check, or avoid `#[ApiProperty(security: ...)]` on resources served as JSON:API or HAL until the patch is applied. Pinning the deployment to classic `php-fpm` workers also limits exposure since the cache does not survive across requests.
Credits
• Tillmann Baumgart (@tillmon) — originally identified the broader cache-key gap and proposed moving `isCacheKeySafe` to `AbstractItemNormalizer`.
• Antoine Bluchet (@soyuka) — extended the gate to JSON:API and HAL normalizers.
Related
Alias · CVE (1)
- CVE-2026-49858 API Platform Core is a system to create hypermedia-driven REST and GraphQL APIs. vulnerability