CVE-2024-55556
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedA vulnerability in Crater Invoice allows an unauthenticated attacker with knowledge of the APP_KEY to achieve remote command execution on the server by manipulating the laravel_session cookie, exploiting arbitrary deserialization through the encrypted session data. The exploitation vector of this vulnerability relies on an attacker obtaining Laravel's secret APP_KEY, which would allow them to decrypt and manipulate session cookies (laravel_session) containing serialized data. By altering this data and re-encrypting it with the APP_KEY, the attacker could trigger arbitrary deserialization on the server, potentially leading to remote command execution (RCE). The vulnerability is primarily exploited by accessing an exposed cookie and manipulating it using the secret key to gain malicious access to the server.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceCrater Invoice suffers from an insecure deserialization vulnerability via Laravel session cookies. An attacker with knowledge of the APP_KEY can decrypt the laravel_session cookie, inject malicious serialized PHP objects, re-encrypt it using the exposed key, and trigger arbitrary deserialization on the server leading to remote command execution.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify Crater Invoice installation and versionLocate the Crater Invoice application directory. Check composer.json or the installed version via composer show crater-invoice/crater or check the version file if one exists in the application root.Affected if Crater Invoice is installed and the version falls within the affected range (prior to patch).
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Locate and inspect APP_KEY in environment configurationCheck the .env file in the Crater Invoice root directory for the APP_KEY setting. Verify the key value is present and not empty.Affected if APP_KEY is present in the .env file - if this key has been exposed (e.g., via version control leak, misconfiguration, or documentation), the vulnerability is exploitable.
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Check if APP_KEY may have been exposed in version controlSearch repository history (git log, git grep) or public code repositories for the APP_KEY value found in your .env file. Also check if .env or config files containing APP_KEY have been committed.Affected if The APP_KEY value appears in version control history, public repositories, or any publicly accessible location.
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Verify session cookie configurationInspect the config/session.php file or the application's session configuration. Confirm that the 'driver' is set to use cookies (typically 'cookie') and that 'encrypt' is true, which makes the laravel_session cookie vulnerable to tampering.Affected if Laravel session cookies are enabled and encrypted using the APP_KEY - this is the default configuration required for the exploit to function.
A user is affected if they are running a vulnerable version of Crater Invoice AND their APP_KEY has been exposed or could be known to an attacker, enabling malicious session cookie injection.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataImmediately rotate the compromised APP_KEY and regenerate all session tokens. Apply any available vendor patches, ensure APP_KEY is never exposed in source control or client-side code, and implement additional authentication layers.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-55556 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2024-55556 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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