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🛡️ CVE-2026-24420 — phpmyfaq

🟡 CVSS 6.5 — Medium ⚠️ Exploit Public CWE-284 NVD
6.5
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

phpMyFAQ: Attachment download allowed without dlattachment right (broken access control)

Summary

A logged‑in user without the dlattachment right can download FAQ attachments. This is due to a permissive permission check in attachment.php that treats the mere presence of a right key as authorization and a flawed group/user logic expression.

Details

In attachment.php, the access decision uses:

``($groupPermission || ($groupPermission && $userPermission)) && isset($permission['dlattachment'])``

isset() returns true even when the right value is false, and the logic simplifies to $groupPermission for some permission modes. As a result, a user without dlattachment can still access the attachment.

PoC

Precondition: A non‑admin user exists; an attachment is associated to a FAQ record; records.allowDownloadsForGuests = false.

Log in as a non‑admin user without dlattachment.

Request the attachment download endpoint.

```

curl -c /tmp/pmf_api_cookies.txt \

-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \

-d '{"username":"tester","password":"Test1234!"}' \

http://192.168.40.16/phpmyfaq/api/v3.0/login

curl -i -b /tmp/pmf_api_cookies.txt \

"http://192.168.40.16/phpmyfaq/index.php?action=attachment&id=1"

```

Impact

Unauthorized users can download attachments (confidentiality breach). Depending on content, this may expose sensitive documents.

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached over the network, attack complexity is low, an attacker needs low-level privileges on the target. No user interaction is required. The scope is unchanged, so the impact stays within the vulnerable component. Rated impact: confidentiality high, integrity none, availability none.

CVSS metrics in full

The score comes from this vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

  • Attack vector: Network — reachable from anywhere that can route to the service.
  • Attack complexity: Low — the attack works reliably, with no preparation.
  • Privileges required: Low — an ordinary user account is enough.
  • User interaction: None — nobody has to be tricked into anything.
  • Scope: Unchanged — the damage stays inside the vulnerable component.
  • Confidentiality impact: High — total loss, or loss the attacker controls.
  • Integrity impact: None.
  • Availability impact: None.

Weakness class

CVE-2026-24420 is classified as CWE-284: Improper Access Control. The software does not restrict an action to the actors that should be allowed to perform it.

Affected software

CVE-2026-24420 is recorded against 3 packages.

  • phpmyfaq (fixed in 4.0.17)
  • phpmyfaq/phpmyfaq (fixed in 4.0.17)
  • thorsten/phpmyfaq (fixed in 4.0.17)

Timeline and source

Published on 24 January 2026 and last revised on 17 June 2026. A public exploit is known to exist, which raises the urgency of patching considerably. Record sourced from NVD.

References

github.com

Other advisories for this package

phpmyfaq has other advisories on record. If you are patching this one, these are worth checking on the same host:

Same weakness in other software

These advisories are the same class of weakness (CWE-284: Improper Access Control) in other software:

Details

Severity MEDIUM
CVSS Score 6.5
CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
CWE CWE-284
Public Exploit ⚠️ Yes
Source NVD
Published 2026-01-24
Updated 2026-08-20
Modified 2026-06-17
Fix URL N/A

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
phpmyfaq — 4.0.17
phpmyfaq/phpmyfaq — 4.0.17
thorsten/phpmyfaq — 4.0.17

Similar Threats

Exploit Protection

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CVE-2026-24420 carries CVSS 6.5 Medium rating and a public exploit already exists. BotEraser checks your installation against this and other known CVE records, and blocks IPs associated with exploit activity.

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