CVE-2026-32629
mediumpriority · track · 24EPSS 0.003 · 18 %ileEUUSEPSS · scored 2026-10-27
phpMyFAQ is an open source FAQ web application. Prior to version 4.1.1, an unauthenticated attacker can submit a guest FAQ with an email address that is syntactically valid per RFC 5321 (quoted local part) yet contains raw HTML — for example "<script>alert(1)</script>"@evil.com. PHP's FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL accepts this email as valid. The email is stored in the database without HTML sanitization and later rendered in the admin FAQ editor template using Twig's |raw filter, which bypasses auto-escaping entirely. This issue has been patched in version 4.1.1.
cvss
Technical severity, 0–10. One row per scoring source.
base score 0–10 · higher = more severe · hover a vector to decode⚠ sources disagree · low–medium · 2.4–6.1
weaknesses
The CWE weakness classes this flaw belongs to.
affected products (4)
Products and version ranges known to be affected.
advisories (1)
Vendor and ecosystem advisories describing this.
- GHSA-98gw-w575-h2phphpMyFAQ is Vulnerable to Stored XSS via Unsanitized Email Field in Admin FAQ Editor2026-03-31ghsa · osvUS
### Summary An unauthenticated attacker can submit a guest FAQ with an email address that is syntactically valid per RFC 5321 (quoted local part) yet contains raw HTML — for example "<script>alert(1)</script>"@evil.com. PHP's FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL accepts this email as valid. The email is stored in the database without HTML sanitization and later rendered in the admin FAQ editor template using Twig's |raw filter, which bypasses auto-escaping entirely. ### Details 1. PHP FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL accepts RFC-valid quoted local parts with dangerous characters phpmyfaq/src/phpMyFAQ/Controller/Frontend/Api/FaqController.php:99 $email = trim((string) Filter::filterVar($data->email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)); PHP accepts "<script>alert(1)</script>"@evil.com as a valid email (RFC 5321 allows <, > inside quoted local parts). Confirmed: "<script>alert(1)</script>"@evil.com => string (valid, not false) 2. Email stored raw without HTML sanitization phpmyfaq/src/phpMyFAQ/Faq.php — email retrieved directly as $row->email from the database. 3. Admin Twig template renders email with |raw phpmyfaq/assets/templates/admin/content/faq.editor.twig:296 <input type="email" name="email" id="email" value="{{ faqData['email'] | raw }}" class="form-control"> Affected version: 4.2.0-alpha, commit f0dc86c8f ### PoC **The reproduction of the vulnerability was implemented with the help of AI while reviewing the source code to generate the proof-of-concept. Please kindly note this for reference. Since the vulnerability has already been confirmed directly in the source code, the proof-of-concept code may be considered as a reference only.** Please extract the attached compressed file and proceed. [poc.zip](https://github.com/user-attachments/files/25938058/poc.zip) 0. (docker compose -f docker-compose.yml down -v) 1. docker compose -f docker-compose.yml up -d mariadb php-fpm nginx 2. bash exploit.sh ----- 1. Access http://localhost:8888/admin/ 2. Log in with admin / Admin1234! 3. After logging in, check whether the URL remains http://localhost:8888/admin/ 4. Go to Content → FAQ Administration → edit "poc" → alert popup should appear If it does not appear, you can also access it directly via: http://localhost:8888/admin/faq/edit/1/en <img width="1388" height="239" alt="스크린샷 2026-03-12 오후 11 42 52" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/b6d5446f-4eba-4cb2-9284-1bca4855142e" /> <img width="1171" height="92" alt="스크린샷 2026-03-12 오후 11 16 17" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/3578e429-7106-4616-92ed-4167816d40f0" /> ### Impact When an administrator opens /admin/faq/edit/{id}/{lang} to review the pending FAQ, the injected script executes in the admin's browser context. This allows an attacker to: - Steal the administrator's session cookie → full admin account takeover - Perform arbitrary admin actions (create users, modify content, change configuration) - Pivot to further attacks on the server The attack chain requires no authentication. By default, records.allowNewFaqsForGuests=true allows unauthenticated FAQ submission, and records.defaultActivation=false guarantees the administrator must visit the edit page to review it. Note on captcha: The built-in captcha is enabled by default when the PHP gd extension is present (spam.enableCaptchaCode=true). This prevents fully automated exploitation but does not prevent a targeted manual attack — an attacker can solve the captcha once and submit the payload. ### Credits wooseokdotkim
also known as (3)
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sources
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references (7)
External citations — patches, advisories, analysis.
- https://github.com/thorsten/phpMyFAQ/releases/Patchcnnvd
- https://github.com/thorsten/phpMyFAQ/releases/tag/4.1.1cnnvd
- https://github.com/thorsten/phpMyFAQ/security/advisories/GHSA-98gw-w575-h2phcnnvd
- https://github.com/thorsten/phpMyFAQ/releases/tag/4.1.1enisa_euvd
- https://github.com/thorsten/phpMyFAQ/security/advisories/GHSA-98gw-w575-h2phenisa_euvd
- https://github.com/thorsten/phpMyFAQ/releases/tag/4.1.1Productnvd
- https://github.com/thorsten/phpMyFAQ/security/advisories/GHSA-98gw-w575-h2phExploitVendor Advisorynvd
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