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Medium

phpMyFAQ Stored Cross-site Scripting at File Attachments

  • Disclosed: 25.03.2024
  • Updated: 11.10.2026 10:22

Summary

An attacker with admin privileges can upload an attachment containing JS code without extension and the application will render it as HTML which allows for XSS attacks.

Details

When attachments are uploaded without an extension, the application renders it as HTML by default. Therefore allowing attackers to upload .html files containing javascript code to perform XSS attacks. The direct file path to the uploaded attachment is also easily obtainable as it is made up of substrings of the file's MD5 hashes.

PoC

  1. Admin users can upload attachments containing XSS payloads in files without extensions to bypass the .html extension check. image

  2. Since the path of the uploaded file is built entirely on the file’s MD5 hash and the attachment directory, it is possible for an attacker to know the direct path of the uploaded file.

E.g file MD5 hash: 38fff51cb7248a06d6142c6bdf846831

URL will be: http://127.0.0.1/phpmyfaq/attachments/38fff/51cb7/248a0/6d6142c6bdf846831

- /attachments
- /38fff (first 5 chars of MD5 hash)
- /51cb7 (next 5 chars of MD5 hash)
- /248a0 (next 5 chars of MD5 hash)
- /6d6142c6bdf846831 (remaining chars of MD5 hash)
  1. Even though the attachment was uploaded without a file extension, it is still rendered as .html, hence triggering the XSS payload. 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 4.3/10
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/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-hm8r-95g3-5hj9 - 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 Stored Cross-site Scripting at File Attachments this entry
    Medium · 4.3 CVE-2024-29179 >= 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
  21. phpMyFAQ vulnerable to Cross-site Scripting
    High · 8.4 CVE-2022-3608 < 3.2.0-alpha 3.2.0-alpha

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