Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessRegister or use any activated account
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ExploitRequest /admin/index.php/ dashboard
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ImpactRead unpublished FAQs, user identities and admin edit URLs
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A01:2025 - Broken Access Control
ASVS 5.0
V8 - Authorization Authorization checks on every request
MITRE ATT&CK
1 technique across 1 tactic: Privilege Escalation The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Exploitation Conditions | Requires a valid, already-activated phpMyFAQ user account of any (non-admin) privilege level - the attacker must be authenticated (PR:L), so anonymous/unauthenticated access to the data is not possible. The affected feature is the admin dashboard endpoint /admin/index.php/, which fails to check admin authorization. Limiting factors: the instance must allow the attacker to obtain an activated account (self-registration enabled, or a provisioned low-privilege login), and the exposure is read-only disclosure of unpublished FAQs, admin edit URLs, recent user identities, and site statistics - no write, modification, or availability impact. Fixed in 4.1.9 and 4.2.0-beta. |
| Impact | This is a medium-severity information-disclosure issue, not a top-tier priority. The vendor-supplied CVSS 4.0 vector (AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:L/VI:N/VA:N) scores 5.3 and is internally consistent with the description: network-reachable, low attack complexity, but requiring an authenticated low-privilege account (PR:L) and causing only limited confidentiality impact (VC:L) with no integrity or availability effect. CWE-862 (Missing Authorization) aligns with the described behavior. No EPSS score, no CISA KEV listing, and no public POC were provided, so there is no signal of active or imminent exploitation - this is confirmed actively exploited only if KEV says so, which it does not here; status is: no public exploit identified at time of analysis. The main caveat is that the input Tags label this an 'Authentication Bypass,' which conflicts with the description and CWE-862: authentication is REQUIRED (any activated account), and it is authorization that is missing - defenders should treat this as a privilege/authorization flaw, not an auth bypass. Overall real-world risk is moderate-to-low: it is useful for an attacker who already has a foothold account to harvest reconnaissance data, but it does not grant code execution, write access, or unauthenticated entry. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker self-registers or uses any activated non-admin account on a phpMyFAQ instance, then simply browses to /admin/index.php/. Because the dashboard fails to enforce admin-level authorization, the attacker reads unpublished FAQ questions, admin edit URLs, recent user identities, and site statistics - useful reconnaissance for further targeting. No public exploit code is referenced, but the request requires only a normal browser and a valid low-privilege login. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Oct 17, 2026
Missing authorization in phpMyFAQ's admin dashboard allows any authenticated user with an activated non-admin account to read restricted site data, including unpublished FAQ questions, admin edit URLs, recent user identities, and site statistics. The issue affects phpMyFAQ 4.1.0 before 4.1.9 and 4.2.0-alpha before 4.2.0-beta, and exploitation requires a valid low-privilege account (PR:L), making it a medium-severity, read-only information-disclosure risk rather than a top-tier priority; no public exploit was identified at time of analysis. Fixed releases are 4.1.9 and 4.2.0-beta.
RemediationAI
Vendor-released patch: upgrade phpMyFAQ to 4.1.9 for the 4.1.x branch or 4.2.0-beta for the 4.2.0-alpha branch (or later), and review the advisory at https://github.com/thorsten/phpMyFAQ/security/advisories/GHSA-4378-pcwq-fc29. If immediate upgrade is not possible, reduce the PR:L prerequisite by disabling self-registration and auditing or removing unnecessary activated accounts, and use web server ACLs to restrict /admin/index.php/ to trusted administrative IP addresses; the trade-off is that legitimate administrators on other networks will be blocked, and these are compensating controls only, not a substitute for patching.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in euvd
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
The root cause is CWE-862 (Missing Authorization) in a PHP web application: phpMyFAQ exposes the administrative dashboard endpoint /admin/index.php/ but fails to verify that the requesting user actually holds an administrative role before rendering dashboard content. The CVSS 4.0 vector indicates network access, low attack complexity, and PR:L, so the attacker must already have an authenticated, activated account of any non-admin privilege level. The CPE entries cpe:2.3:a:thorsten:phpmyfaq:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* identify Thorsten's phpMyFAQ as the affected product, with vulnerable ranges 4.1.0 through versions before 4.1.9 and 4.2.0-alpha through versions before 4.2.0-beta. The exposure is limited to read-only disclosure of unpublished FAQ questions, admin edit URLs, recent user identities, and site statistics; there is no write, modification, or availability impact in the assessed vector.
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Severity by source
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:L/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Network-reachable endpoint with low complexity, but a valid low-privilege account is required (PR:L); only limited data disclosure, so C:L and I:N/A:N.
Primary rating from Vendor (VulnCheck).
CVSS VectorVendor: VulnCheck
Lifecycle Timeline
1DescriptionCVE.org
phpMyFAQ from 4.1.0 before 4.1.9 and 4.2.0-alpha before 4.2.0-beta contains a missing authorization vulnerability in the admin dashboard that allows authenticated users without admin rights to view restricted data. Attackers with any activated account can request /admin/index.php/ to read unpublished FAQ questions, admin edit URLs, recent user identities, and site statistics.
Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Authentication bypass attacks exploit flaws in the verification mechanisms that control access to systems and applications.
Duplicate-email registration handling in phpMyFAQ 4.0.7 through 4.0.13 (and 4.0-nightly-2025-10-03 and earlier) lets una
Insufficient Session Expiration in GitHub repository thorsten/phpmyfaq prior to 3.2.2. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8
Authentication Bypass by Capture-replay in GitHub repository thorsten/phpmyfaq prior to 3.1.12. Rated critical severity
Weak Password Requirements in GitHub repository thorsten/phpmyfaq prior to 3.1.12. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), t
Weak Password Requirements in GitHub repository thorsten/phpmyfaq prior to 3.1.8. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), th
Unauthenticated SQL injection in phpMyFAQ before 4.1.2 allows remote attackers to extract credentials, admin tokens, and
In phpMyFAQ before 2.9.9, there is Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) in admin/stat.ratings.php. Rated high severity (CVS
In phpMyFaq before 2.9.9, there is CSRF in admin/ajax.config.php. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is
In phpMyFAQ before 2.9.9, there is Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) for modifying a glossary. Rated high severity (CVSS
In phpMyFAQ before 2.9.9, there is Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) in admin/stat.main.php. Rated high severity (CVSS 8
phpMyFAQ is an open source FAQ web application for PHP 8.1+ and MySQL, PostgreSQL and other databases. Rated high severi
phpMyFAQ is an open source FAQ web application for PHP 8.1+ and MySQL, PostgreSQL and other databases. Rated high severi
EUVD-2026-103330
GHSA-c672-4mmj-vq8q
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
Exploit-DB