CVE-2017-16894

high

Published 2017-11-20 · Modified 2026-05-13

💬 Discuss on Community ✚ Propose mitigation

CVSS v3

7.5

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

CVSS v4 NEW

—

not yet in upstream

VIR risk

8.5

Description

In Laravel framework through 5.5.21, remote attackers can obtain sensitive information (such as externally usable passwords) via a direct request for the /.env URI. NOTE: this CVE is only about Laravel framework's writeNewEnvironmentFileWith function in src/Illuminate/Foundation/Console/KeyGenerateCommand.php, which uses file_put_contents without restricting the .env permissions. The .env filename is not used exclusively by Laravel framework.

Predictions

Exploit likelihood

83%

Patch ETA

—

Heuristic predictions, AS-IS, for prioritization only.

Mitigations

No mitigations published for this CVE yet.

The vendor-content worker queues fetches as references arrive (check back in a few minutes). Or — if you've already worked around this in production — publish your fix to the community-verified tier.

✚ Propose a mitigation on Community → Mitigations published via the community go through AI scoring + 2 human reviewers + 7-day silent objection window before landing here with source_tier=community-verified.

Exploits

Public proof-of-concept code below. AS-IS, for defenders and authorised testing only.

Metasploit modules

exploit_unix/http/laravel_token_unserialize_exec rank 600

PHP Laravel Framework token Unserialize Remote Command Execution

Source code queued for fetch — refresh in a moment.

OS impact

OS	Version	Status	Fixed in
debian	bookworm	fixed	`0`
debian	bullseye	fixed	`0`
debian	forky	fixed	`0`
debian	sid	fixed	`0`
debian	trixie	fixed	`0`

Application impact

Vendor	Product	Versions	Fixed
laravel	laravel	`{"endIncluding":"5.5.21"}`

References

CWEs

CWE-200

Community-verified mitigations for this CVE will appear above when contributors publish them.

Verify integrity in audit chain (admin only). AS-IS.