Executive brief
CtrlPanel is an open-source billing and management platform used by hosting providers to manage customers and services. A critical security flaw in the software's installation component allows unauthorized individuals to take complete control of the server over the internet. This could lead to the theft of customer data, exposure of database credentials, and total disruption of hosting operations.
Technical details
A remote code execution vulnerability exists in CtrlPanel's web-based installer (public/installer/index.php) due to a flawed order of operations and improper input sanitization. The application performs the 'install.lock' check only after including and executing form handler files, allowing unauthenticated attackers to access installer endpoints even on fully deployed systems. Furthermore, the SMTP form handler (src/forms/smtp.php) interpolates unsanitized user input directly into shell commands executed via proc_open. An attacker can use shell metacharacters to break out of the intended command context and execute arbitrary OS commands with the privileges of the web server. This vulnerability is reported to be actively exploited in the wild.
Affected products
- CtrlPanel-gg CtrlPanel <= 1.1.1
Timeline
- 2026-04-24: patched: Fixed in version 1.2.0
- 2026-05-08: advisory: GitHub Security Advisory GHSA-jmhr-q9q5-fqwh published
- 2026-05-19: disclosed: CVE-2026-34234 published to NVD