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Medium

phpMyFAQ stored Cross-site Scripting at user email

  • Disclosed: 25.03.2024
  • Updated: 11.10.2026 10:22

Summary

The email field in phpMyFAQ's user control panel page is vulnerable to stored XSS attacks due to the inadequacy of PHP's FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL function, which only validates the email format, not its content. This vulnerability enables an attacker to execute arbitrary client-side JavaScript within the context of another user's phpMyFAQ session.

Details

Despite using PHP's FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL function, the email field does not adequately validate the content of the email address. This means that malicious input, such as JavaScript code, can be accepted and stored in the database without being detected. When the stored data is retrieved and displayed on web pages, it is not properly sanitized to remove or neutralize any potentially harmful content, such as JavaScript code which leads to Stored XSS.

PoC

  1. Login as any user, go to the user control panel, change email to any valid email and intercept the request.

  2. Modify the request’s email parameter to the following payload: "><svg/onload=confirm('XSS')>"@x.y image

  3. Send the request and see that the XSS is triggered in the user control panel page. image

  4. Also affects any user who browse to "../admin/?action=user&user_action=listallusers" image

Impact

This allows an attacker to execute arbitrary client side JavaScript within the context of another user's phpMyFAQ session.

Affected software

Click a technology to see all vulnerabilities affecting it.

PlatformPackageVulnerable versionsFixed in
Composer package phpmyfaq/phpmyfaq >= 3.2.5, < 3.2.6 3.2.6

References

CVSS score 5.5/10
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
Weakness (CWE)
CWE-79
Platform
Composer
Package
phpmyfaq/phpmyfaq
Disclosed
25.03.2024
Updated
11.10.2026 10:22

Sources and licenses

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-q7g6-xfh2-vhpx - 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 stored Cross-site Scripting at user email this entry
    Medium · 5.5 CVE-2024-27300 >= 3.2.5, < 3.2.6 3.2.6
  18. 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
  19. phpMyFAQ SQL injections at insertentry & saveentry
    High · 8.8 CVE-2024-28107 >= 3.2.5, < 3.2.6 3.2.6
  20. phpMyFAQ SQL Injection at "Save News"
    High · 8.8 CVE-2024-27299 >= 3.2.5, < 3.2.6 3.2.6
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