Despite being discovered in 2017, this vulnerability remains highly active. Researchers have observed massive spikes in scanning activity for this path even in recent years. CVE-2017-9841 Detail - NVD 21-Oct-2025 —
You should configure your web server to block public access to the entire vendor/ directory. RedirectMatch 404 /\/vendor\/+/ Use code with caution.
Even more concerning, CVE‑2017‑9841 has been incorporated into , which explicitly exploits this endpoint to gain initial access to web servers. Androxgh0st sends malicious HTTP POST requests to eval-stdin.php to execute remote code and then uses that foothold to propagate further. index of vendor phpunit phpunit src util php evalstdinphp
The server reads via php://input , passes it straight into eval() , and executes the command. The attacker instantly receives the server's system identifier information in the HTTP response. From here, they can download web shells, drop ransomware, or exfiltrate database credentials. Why a "9-Year-Old" Vulnerability Rains Supreme
curl -X POST -d "" http://example.com Use code with caution. Despite being discovered in 2017, this vulnerability remains
If you are using a version of PHPUnit prior to 4.8.28 or 5.x < 5.6.3, you must update immediately.
The script reads from STDIN , evaluates the string as PHP code, and outputs the result. RedirectMatch 404 /\/vendor\/+/ Use code with caution
PHPUnit is the standard unit-testing framework for PHP applications. When installed via Composer (the PHP dependency manager), PHPUnit and its internal utilities reside within a project's root folder inside the /vendor/ directory.
, your site is being actively scanned for one of the most famous "low-hanging fruit" vulnerabilities in PHP history. What is the Vulnerability? The issue lies in the eval-stdin.php file, which was included in PHPUnit versions before . The code in these versions used on the content of php://input , essentially inviting anyone on the internet to send a
You should configure your web server (Nginx or Apache) to deny access to the entire vendor directory. location /vendor/ deny all; return 404; Use code with caution. Apache .htaccess :