GCVE Workshop - 22 September 2026 (14:00-18:00), Luxembourg Before The Vulnopticon Conference - Registration

FKIE_CVE-2026-53595

Vulnerability from fkie_nvd - Published: 2026-07-20 21:16 - Updated: 2026-07-21 19:25
Severity
9.4 (Critical) - CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:L
Summary
FreeScout is a free help desk and shared inbox built with PHP's Laravel framework. Prior to version 1.8.224, the public endpoint `POST /user-setup/{hash}/{invite_sent_at}` (`OpenController@userSetupSave`) selects the target account solely by its `invite_hash` column, then overwrites that account's email and password and logs in as it. No authentication, cookie, or prior session is required. After a user activates, FreeScout sets `invite_hash` to the empty string. On MySQL and MariaDB, `VARCHAR` equality ignores trailing spaces, so a single URL-encoded space (`%20`) matches the stored empty string and selects the lowest-id activated user. The expiry guard decrypts `invite_sent_at` with the target's password hash, but `Helper::decrypt` returns its raw input unchanged when decryption fails. A plaintext numeric value such as `9999999999` therefore passes the time-to-live check without any secret. The result is that an anonymous attacker sets the email and password of the lowest-id activated FreeScout account (a support agent, or an administrator if one was added by invitation) and authenticates as that account. Version 1.8.224 contains a fix.
References
security-advisories@github.comhttps://github.com/freescout-help-desk/freescout/security/advisories/GHSA-jqj5-r72v-v29g
134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0https://github.com/freescout-help-desk/freescout/security/advisories/GHSA-jqj5-r72v-v29g
Impacted products
Vendor Product Version
To clipboard 

{
  "affected": [
    {
      "affectedData": [
        {
          "product": "freescout",
          "vendor": "freescout-help-desk",
          "versions": [
            {
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "\u003c 1.8.224"
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "source": "security-advisories@github.com"
    }
  ],
  "cveTags": [],
  "descriptions": [
    {
      "lang": "en",
      "value": "FreeScout is a free help desk and shared inbox built with PHP\u0027s Laravel framework. Prior to version 1.8.224, the public endpoint `POST /user-setup/{hash}/{invite_sent_at}` (`OpenController@userSetupSave`) selects the target account solely by its `invite_hash` column, then overwrites that account\u0027s email and password and logs in as it. No authentication, cookie, or prior session is required. After a user activates, FreeScout sets `invite_hash` to the empty string. On MySQL and MariaDB, `VARCHAR` equality ignores trailing spaces, so a single URL-encoded space (`%20`) matches the stored empty string and selects the lowest-id activated user. The expiry guard decrypts `invite_sent_at` with the target\u0027s password hash, but `Helper::decrypt` returns its raw input unchanged when decryption fails. A plaintext numeric value such as `9999999999` therefore passes the time-to-live check without any secret. The result is that an anonymous attacker sets the email and password of the lowest-id activated FreeScout account (a support agent, or an administrator if one was added by invitation) and authenticates as that account. Version 1.8.224 contains a fix."
    }
  ],
  "id": "CVE-2026-53595",
  "lastModified": "2026-07-21T19:25:11.717",
  "metrics": {
    "cvssMetricV31": [
      {
        "cvssData": {
          "attackComplexity": "LOW",
          "attackVector": "NETWORK",
          "availabilityImpact": "LOW",
          "baseScore": 9.4,
          "baseSeverity": "CRITICAL",
          "confidentialityImpact": "HIGH",
          "integrityImpact": "HIGH",
          "privilegesRequired": "NONE",
          "scope": "UNCHANGED",
          "userInteraction": "NONE",
          "vectorString": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:L",
          "version": "3.1"
        },
        "exploitabilityScore": 3.9,
        "impactScore": 5.5,
        "source": "security-advisories@github.com",
        "type": "Secondary"
      }
    ],
    "ssvcV203": [
      {
        "source": "134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0",
        "ssvcData": {
          "id": "CVE-2026-53595",
          "options": [
            {
              "exploitation": "poc"
            },
            {
              "automatable": "yes"
            },
            {
              "technicalImpact": "total"
            }
          ],
          "role": "CISA Coordinator",
          "timestamp": "2026-07-21T13:20:35.944303Z",
          "version": "2.0.3"
        }
      }
    ]
  },
  "published": "2026-07-20T21:16:48.417",
  "references": [
    {
      "source": "security-advisories@github.com",
      "url": "https://github.com/freescout-help-desk/freescout/security/advisories/GHSA-jqj5-r72v-v29g"
    },
    {
      "source": "134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0",
      "url": "https://github.com/freescout-help-desk/freescout/security/advisories/GHSA-jqj5-r72v-v29g"
    }
  ],
  "sourceIdentifier": "security-advisories@github.com",
  "vulnStatus": "Deferred",
  "weaknesses": [
    {
      "description": [
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "value": "CWE-178"
        },
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "value": "CWE-287"
        },
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "value": "CWE-640"
        }
      ],
      "source": "security-advisories@github.com",
      "type": "Secondary"
    }
  ]
}



Log in or create an account to share your comment.




Tags
Taxonomy of the tags.





Forecast uses a logistic model when the trend is rising, or an exponential decay model when the trend is falling. Fitted via linearized least squares.

Sightings

Author Source Type Date Other

Nomenclature

  • Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
  • Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
  • Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
  • Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
  • Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.


Detection rules are retrieved from Rulezet.


Related by attack behaviour

Vulnerabilities whose description is nearest to this one in the vector space of the CIRCL/vulnerability-attack-technique-biencoder model. This is a similarity search over the bi-encoder space (plain cosine), not a classification, and it has no measured accuracy.