Description
Netgate pfSense CE through 2.9.0 contains a php.ini injection vulnerability that allows authenticated users with General Setup privileges to inject directives by submitting an unvalidated timezone value. Attackers can embed a quote and newline to add auto_prepend_file pointing at /var/db/zoneinfo, executing PHP as root after php.ini is regenerated at boot or php-fpm restart.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Netgate | pfSense CE | ≤ 2.9.0 | — |
Advisories 1
- WID-SEC-2026-3983 Netgate pfSense: Mehrere Schwachstellen BSI CERT-Bund (WID) · Oct 15, 2026
References
- https://github.com/abraxas/pfsense-timezone-phpini exploit technical-description
- https://abraxaslabs.tech/research/pfsense-ce-leftovers technical-description
- https://github.com/pfsense/pfsense/blob/9363ac5b8651a1c7a333180425ce7719070f95f9/src/usr/local/www/system.php#L288 technical-description
- https://github.com/pfsense/pfsense/blob/9363ac5b8651a1c7a333180425ce7719070f95f9/src/etc/inc/system.inc#L2377-L2380 technical-description
- https://github.com/pfsense/pfsense/blob/9363ac5b8651a1c7a333180425ce7719070f95f9/src/etc/rc.php_ini_setup#L163-L166 technical-description
- https://github.com/pfsense/pfsense/blob/9363ac5b8651a1c7a333180425ce7719070f95f9/src/etc/rc.php_ini_setup#L220 technical-description
- VulnCheck Advisory: Netgate pfSense CE through 2.9.0 php.ini Injection via Timezone Setting third-party-advisory