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phpMyFAQ sharing FAQ functionality can easily be abused for phishing purposes

Moderate severity GitHub Reviewed Published Feb 5, 2024 in thorsten/phpMyFAQ • Updated Feb 5, 2024

Package

composer phpmyfaq/phpmyfaq (Composer)

Affected versions

< 3.2.5

Patched versions

3.2.5

Description

Summary

The 'sharing FAQ' functionality allows any unauthenticated actor to misuse the phpMyFAQ application to send arbitrary emails to a large range of targets.

Details

The phpMyFAQ application has a functionality where anyone can share a FAQ item to others. The front-end of this functionality allows any phpMyFAQ articles to be shared with 5 email addresses. The application will then send these 5 emails. However, there are no controls over what link and content are shared. Furthermore, any unauthenticated actor can perform this action. There is a CAPTCHA in place, however the amount of people you email with a single request is not limited to 5 by the backend. An attacker can thus solve a single CAPTCHA and send thousands of emails at once.

PoC

We send the following form and capture the request.
image

We now change the body to contain 50 email addresses instead of just 1, and send the request. The attacker can also change the body of the email to any phishing message.
image

Below are the logs of the email server, proving that all these emails were sent.
image

An attacker can also change the link that is sent in these emails. Making phishing even more possible.
image

Impact

An attacker can utilize the target application's email server to send phishing messages. This can get the server on a blacklist, causing all emails to end up in spam. It can also lead to reputational damages.

References

@thorsten thorsten published to thorsten/phpMyFAQ Feb 5, 2024
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Feb 5, 2024
Reviewed Feb 5, 2024
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Feb 5, 2024
Last updated Feb 5, 2024

Severity

Moderate

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
Low
Availability
Low

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L

EPSS score

0.046%
(18th percentile)

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2024-22208

GHSA ID

GHSA-9hhf-xmcw-r3xg

Source code

Credits

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