PraisonAI recipe workflow policy can be bypassed by declaring and YAML-approving dangerous tools outside TEMPLATE.yaml

The unintended behavior is that the recipe dangerous-tool policy exposes an operator-facing explicit override, allow_dangerous_tools=True, but a recipe can avoid that policy by moving the dangerous tool declaration from TEMPLATE.yaml requires.tools into the steps workflow. The recipe still runs through the standard recipe runner path, and the same workflow can self-approve the critical tool.

This conflicts with the documented safety model:

• PraisonAI's approval docs describe approval as pausing an agent before a risky tool and asking a human or configured channel to allow or deny it.
• The SDK approval docs describe a human-in-the-loop approval system for dangerous tool operations.
• Security-environment documentation describes opt-in access for potentially dangerous operations and secure defaults for RCE prevention.
• Policy-engine documentation describes policies that block dangerous operations and require approval for sensitive actions.

A control recipe that declares requires.tools: [execute_command] is denied with:

Tool 'execute_command' is denied by default. Use allow_dangerous_tools=True to override.

The bypass recipe uses the same tool but omits it from requires.tools; it passes policy and reaches the recipe runner's dry-run state.

PoV

Run:

python3 poc/poc.py

Expected output:

{
  "ok": true,
  "control_policy": "Tool 'execute_command' is denied by default. Use allow_dangerous_tools=True to override.",
  "control_recipe_status": "policy_denied",
  "bypass_policy": null,
  "bypass_recipe_dry_run_status": "dry_run",
  "workflow_approve_tools": [
    "execute_command"
  ],
  "runner_tool_names": [
    "execute_command"
  ],
  "command_stdout": "poc",
  "operator_env_auto_approve": null
}

The PoV creates two temporary recipes:

1. A control recipe with TEMPLATE.yaml requires.tools: [execute_command]. recipe.run() returns policy_denied.
2. A bypass recipe with no dangerous tools in TEMPLATE.yaml, but with workflow.yaml declaring execute_command under an agent and approve: [execute_command]. recipe.run(..., dry_run=True) reaches dry_run, and the same parser/approval context permits a harmless `printf poc.

PoC

The PoV section above contains the local reproduction command, input, and decisive output.

Impact

If an operator runs an untrusted recipe, or exposes the recipe runner to users who can choose recipe names/URIs, the recipe can self-authorize a default-denied critical shell tool without the operator setting allow_dangerous_tools=True.

Successful exploitation lets the workflow run execute_command with the privileges of the PraisonAI process if the agent reaches the tool call. The exact trigger depends on the workflow and model/tool-call path, but the policy boundary is already bypassed before execution.

This can affect both local CLI use and HTTP recipe-runner deployments. The HTTP recipe runner defaults to localhost/no-auth and requires auth for non-localhost binding, so this report uses local/UI-required severity rather than claiming an unauthenticated network RCE by default.

The local HTTP sidecar documentation also frames the sidecar as a localhost REST API for local/polyglot integration. If a deployment exposes that API to authenticated users who can choose recipe names or URIs, the same policy bypass can become an authenticated remote recipe-execution issue, but that is not the default severity claim.

Severity

Suggested severity: High.

Suggested Fix

Normalize and validate the actual workflow tool graph before recipe execution:

• Parse the selected workflow file before or during _check_tool_policy().
• Include workflow.yaml agents.*.tools, roles.*.tools, included recipes, and other workflow-resolved tool lists in the dangerous-tool policy.
• Treat approve: as an operator-supplied approval policy, not a recipe-controlled bypass of the recipe-level dangerous-tool gate.
• If approve: remains recipe-controlled, ignore dangerous/default-denied tool entries unless the caller passed allow_dangerous_tools=True or an explicit external policy allowed that exact tool.
• Add regression tests for:
  • dangerous tool in TEMPLATE.yaml requires.tools is denied;
  • dangerous tool in workflow.yaml agents.*.tools is also denied;
  • approve: [execute_command] does not bypass the recipe policy;
  • allow_dangerous_tools=True keeps the intended opt-in behavior.

Affected Package/Versions

• Repository: MervinPraison/PraisonAI
• Package: praisonai
• Components:
  • src/praisonai/praisonai/recipe/core.py
  • src/praisonai/praisonai/recipe/models.py
  • src/praisonai-agents/praisonaiagents/workflows/yaml_parser.py
  • src/praisonai-agents/praisonaiagents/workflows/workflows.py
  • src/praisonai-agents/praisonaiagents/approval/registry.py

Validated affected:

• current main 2f9677abb2ea68eab864ee8b6a828fd0141612e1
• v4.6.57
• v4.6.56
• v4.6.10
• v4.6.9
• v4.5.128
• v4.5.120
• v4.5.96
• v4.5.87

Suggested affected range: >= 4.5.87, <= 4.6.57.

PyPI lists PraisonAI 4.6.57 as the latest release on 2026-06-13.

Earlier tested tags through v4.5.85 failed in this source checkout before the tested workflow path due an unrelated praisonaiagents.output.models import error. They are not claimed fixed or unaffected.

Advisory History

Checked visible PraisonAI advisories and prior submissions for the same root cause, affected entrypoint, and exploit preconditions. No exact duplicate is identified in this report text. Adjacent advisories, where relevant, are listed in References or discussed above.