Update dependency phpunit/phpunit to v12.5.22 [SECURITY] - autoclosed

[renovate]

This PR contains the following updates:

Package	Change	Age	Confidence
phpunit/phpunit (source)	12.5.17 → 12.5.22

---

Warning

Some dependencies could not be looked up. Check the Dependency Dashboard for more information.

GitHub Vulnerability Alerts

GHSA-qrr6-mg7r-m243

Impact

PHPUnit forwards PHP INI settings to child processes (used for isolated/PHPT test execution) as -d name=value command-line arguments without neutralizing INI metacharacters. Because PHP's INI parser interprets " as a string delimiter, ; as the start of a comment, and most importantly a newline as a directive separator, a value containing a newline is parsed by the child process as multiple INI directives.

An attacker able to influence a single INI value can therefore inject arbitrary additional directives into the child's configuration, including auto_prepend_file, extension, disable_functions, open_basedir, and others. Setting auto_prepend_file to an attacker-controlled path yields remote code execution in the child process.

Sources of INI values that participate in the attack:

• <ini name="…" value="…"/> entries in phpunit.xml / phpunit.xml.dist
• INI settings inherited from the host PHP runtime via ini_get_all()

Threat Model

Exploitation requires the attacker to control the content of an INI value read by PHPUnit. In practice this means write access to the project's phpunit.xml, the host php.ini, or the PHP binary's environment. The most realistic exposure is Poisoned Pipeline Execution (PPE): a pull request from an untrusted contributor that modifies phpunit.xml to include a newline-containing INI value, executed by a CI system that runs PHPUnit against the PR without isolation. A malicious newline is not visibly distinguishable from a legitimate value in a typical diff review.

Affected component

PHPUnit\Util\PHP\JobRunner::settingsToParameters().

Patches

The fix has two parts:

1. Reject line-break characters

Because a newline or carriage return in an INI value has no legitimate use and is the primitive that enables directive injection, any PHP setting value containing \n or \r is now rejected with an explicit PhpProcessException. This follows the same "visibility over silence" principle applied in CVE-2026-24765: the anomalous state fails loudly in CI output rather than being silently sanitized, giving operators an opportunity to investigate whether it reflects tampering, environment contamination, or an unexpected upstream change.

2. Quote remaining metacharacters

Values containing " or ;, both of which have legitimate uses (e.g., regex-valued INI settings such as ddtrace's datadog.appsec.obfuscation_parameter_value_regexp), are wrapped in double quotes with inner " escaped as \", so PHP's INI parser reads them as literal string contents rather than comment/delimiter tokens. Plain values are forwarded unchanged so that boolean keywords (On/Off) and bitwise expressions (E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE) retain their INI semantics.

Workarounds

If upgrading is not immediately possible:

• Audit INI values: Ensure no <ini value="…"> entry in phpunit.xml / phpunit.xml.dist contains newline, ", or ; characters, and that nothing writes such values into configuration at build time.
• Isolate CI execution of untrusted code: Run PHPUnit against pull requests only in ephemeral, containerized runners that discard filesystem state between jobs; require human review before executing PRs from forks; enforce branch protection on workflows that handle secrets (pull_request_target and similar). These mitigations apply to the broader PPE risk class and are effective against this vulnerability as well.
• Restrict who can modify phpunit.xml: Treat phpunit.xml as security-sensitive in code review, particularly <ini> entries.
• Sanitize host INI: Ensure the host PHP's php.ini does not contain values with embedded newlines or unescaped metacharacters.

References

• Fix: https://github.com/sebastianbergmann/phpunit/pull/6592
• Related advisory (same threat class, Poisoned Pipeline Execution): GHSA-vvj3-c3rp-c85p / CVE-2026-24765
• OWASP CI/CD Top 10: CICD-SEC-04 Poisoned Pipeline Execution
• CWE-88: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/88.html
• CWE-93: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/93.html

Severity

• CVSS Score: 7.8 / 10 (High)
• Vector String: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

---

Release Notes

sebastianbergmann/phpunit (phpunit/phpunit)

v12.5.22

Compare Source

v12.5.21

Compare Source

v12.5.20

Compare Source

v12.5.19: PHPUnit 12.5.19

Compare Source

Fixed

• Regression in XML configuration migration introduced in PHPUnit 12.5.8

---

Learn how to install or update PHPUnit 12.5 in the documentation.

Keep up to date with PHPUnit:

• You can follow @​phpunit@phpc.social to stay up to date with PHPUnit's development.
• You can subscribe to the PHPUnit Updates newsletter to receive updates about and tips for PHPUnit.

v12.5.18: PHPUnit 12.5.18

Compare Source

Fixed

• #​4571: No warning when --random-order-seed is used when test execution order is not random
• #​4975: --filter does not work when filter string starts with #
• #​5354: JUnit XML logger does not handle TestSuiteSkipped event
• #​6276: Exit with non-zero exit code when explicit test selection (--filter, --group, --testsuite) yields no tests
• #​6583: Failing output expectation skips tearDown() and handler restoration, causing subsequent tests to be marked as risky

---

Learn how to install or update PHPUnit 12.5 in the documentation.

Keep up to date with PHPUnit:

• You can follow @​phpunit@phpc.social to stay up to date with PHPUnit's development.
• You can subscribe to the PHPUnit Updates newsletter to receive updates about and tips for PHPUnit.

---

Configuration

📅 Schedule: (UTC)

• Branch creation
  • ""
• Automerge
  • At any time (no schedule defined)

🚦 Automerge: Disabled by config. Please merge this manually once you are satisfied.

♻ Rebasing: Whenever PR becomes conflicted, or you tick the rebase/retry checkbox.

🔕 Ignore: Close this PR and you won't be reminded about this update again.

---

• If you want to rebase/retry this PR, check this box

---

This PR was generated by Mend Renovate. View the repository job log.