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phpMyFAQ sharing FAQ functionality can easily be abused for phishing purposes

  • Disclosed: 05.02.2024
  • Updated: 11.10.2026 10:22

Summary

The 'sharing FAQ' functionality allows any unauthenticated actor to misuse the phpMyFAQ application to send arbitrary emails to a large range of targets.

Details

The phpMyFAQ application has a functionality where anyone can share a FAQ item to others. The front-end of this functionality allows any phpMyFAQ articles to be shared with 5 email addresses. The application will then send these 5 emails. However, there are no controls over what link and content are shared. Furthermore, any unauthenticated actor can perform this action. There is a CAPTCHA in place, however the amount of people you email with a single request is not limited to 5 by the backend. An attacker can thus solve a single CAPTCHA and send thousands of emails at once.

PoC

We send the following form and capture the request. image

We now change the body to contain 50 email addresses instead of just 1, and send the request. The attacker can also change the body of the email to any phishing message. image

Below are the logs of the email server, proving that all these emails were sent. image

An attacker can also change the link that is sent in these emails. Making phishing even more possible. image

Impact

An attacker can utilize the target application's email server to send phishing messages. This can get the server on a blacklist, causing all emails to end up in spam. It can also lead to reputational damages.

Affected software

Click a technology to see all vulnerabilities affecting it.

PlatformPackageVulnerable versionsFixed in
Composer package phpmyfaq/phpmyfaq < 3.2.5 3.2.5

References

CVSS score 6.5/10
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L
Weakness (CWE)
CWE-863
Platform
Composer
Package
phpmyfaq/phpmyfaq
Disclosed
05.02.2024
Updated
11.10.2026 10:22

Sources and licenses

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-9hhf-xmcw-r3xg - CC BY 4.0

Vulnerability history: phpmyfaq/phpmyfaq

All published vulnerabilities of this package (Composer package), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.

All (47) in the archive
Total entries
47
First → latest
10.2022 09.2026
Without a fix
2
Exploited in attacks
0

Severity breakdown

  • Critical 2
  • High 18
  • Medium 25
  • Low 2

Disclosures per year

Severity:
  1. phpMyFAQ has SQL Injection in `StopWords::add()` — Unescaped Stop Word Insertion
    High CVE-2026-56738 < 4.1.6 4.1.6
  2. phpMyFAQ's two-factor authentication login bypasses the password factor
    High · 8.1 CVE-2026-56737 >= 3.2.0, < 4.1.6 4.1.6
  3. phpMyFAQ has Stored XSS in Admin FAQ Editor via HTML Entity Bypass in Frontend FAQ Submission
    High · 8.2 CVE-2026-56736 < 4.2.0-alpha 4.2.0-alpha
  4. phpMyFAQ privilege escalation: GroupController::updatePermissions lets a GROUP_EDIT admin grant rights they do not hold
    High · 8.8 CVE-2026-57995 < 4.1.5 4.1.5
  5. phpMyFAQ has an incomplete fix for GHSA-xvp4-phqj-cjr3 — editUser() and updateUserRights() lack authorization guards
    High · 8.1 CVE-2026-56396 < 4.1.4 4.1.4
  6. phpMyFAQ: Missing Password Reset Token Allows Account Takeover via Username/Email Enumeration
    High · 8.2 CVE-2026-35675 < 4.1.3 4.1.3
  7. phpMyFAQ: Default Empty API Token Authentication Bypass
    High · 7.5 CVE-2026-35672 < 4.1.3 4.1.3
  8. phpMyFAQ: IDOR Account Takeover
    High · 8.8 CVE-2026-35671 < 4.1.3 4.1.3
  9. phpMyFAQ: Unauthenticated Password Reset Endpoint Allows User Enumeration and Forced Password Change Without Token Validation
    High · 8.2 CVE-2026-35676 < 4.1.3 4.1.3
  10. phpMyFAQ has unauthenticated SQL injection via User-Agent header in BuiltinCaptcha
    Critical · 9.8 CVE-2026-46364 < 4.1.2 4.1.2
  11. phpMyFAQ has unauthenticated FAQ permission bypass via getFaqBySolutionId fallback query
    High · 7.5 CVE-2026-46366 < 4.1.2 4.1.2
  12. phpMyFAQ has SQL Injection in CurrentUser::setTokenData through unescaped OAuth token fields
    High · 7.5 CVE-2026-46359 < 4.1.2 4.1.2
  13. phpMyFAQ enables unauthenticated 2FA brute-force attack via /admin/check acceptance of arbitrary user-id
    Critical · 9.1 CVE-2026-45010 < 4.1.2 4.1.2
  14. phpMyFAQ has stored XSS via Utils::parseUrl() in comment rendering
    High · 7.6 CVE-2026-46367 >= 4.1.1, < 4.1.2 4.1.2
  15. phpMyFAQ: Path Traversal - Arbitrary File Deletion in MediaBrowserController
    High · 8.7 CVE-2026-34728 < 4.1.1 4.1.1
  16. phpMyFAQ has Authenticated SQL Injection in Configuration Update Functionality
    High · 7.2 CVE-2025-62519 < 4.0.14 4.0.14
  17. phpMyFAQ's File Upload Bypass at Category Image Leads to RCE
    High · 7.2 CVE-2024-28105 >= 3.2.5, < 3.2.6 3.2.6
  18. phpMyFAQ SQL injections at insertentry & saveentry
    High · 8.8 CVE-2024-28107 >= 3.2.5, < 3.2.6 3.2.6
  19. phpMyFAQ SQL Injection at "Save News"
    High · 8.8 CVE-2024-27299 >= 3.2.5, < 3.2.6 3.2.6
  20. phpMyFAQ sharing FAQ functionality can easily be abused for phishing purposes this entry
    Medium · 6.5 CVE-2024-22208 < 3.2.5 3.2.5
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