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CVE.org (no NVD analysis yet)· CNA VulnCheck

CVE-2026-111893: phpMyFAQ 4.2.0-alpha before 4.2.0-beta Privilege Escalation via Group Category Restrictions API

HighCVSS 8.5 · v4.0—No exploit Fix available

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 34/100)

  • The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
  • Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 0.36% (FIRST EPSS).
  • Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it. Administrator privileges are required. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
  • Fixed version: thorsten phpMyFAQ 4.2.0-beta.

Low priority for now. Upgrade to thorsten phpMyFAQ 4.2.0-beta or later.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

phpMyFAQ 4.2.0-alpha before 4.2.0-beta contains a privilege escalation vulnerability in GroupController::saveCategoryRestrictions() that lets delegated administrators assign categories outside their own scope. Category-restricted administrators can POST to /admin/api/group/category-restrictions with out-of-scope or empty categoryIds to grant groups unrestricted category access.

Published
Oct 17, 2026
Updated
Oct 18, 2026
EPSS
0.3% · 30th percentile

Report tools

JSON

Action score

34

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
34 / 40 · 8.5 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
0 / 30 · 0.3%

CISA SSVC decision

Exploitation
proof of concept
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total

Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.

CNA vs NVD score

NVD
—
CNA · VulnCheck
8.5
NVD has not scored this yet; the score shown is the CNA’s.

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.

Get told when this record changes

  • Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
  • No public exploit code on record
  • A fix has been released

If any of these changes, we'll tell you in the daily email digest.

Follow CVE-2026-111893

When you'll hear from us

  • when it enters CISA KEV
  • when exploit code appears or is weaponized
  • when the record is updated (including a fixed version)
  • when EPSS rises 20 points in a week

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

—

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (VulnCheck). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

  • thorsten phpMyFAQ

    • 4.2.0-betanot affected
    • 4.2.0-alpha and later · before 4.2.0-betaaffected · semver

Same product

thorsten: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2026-46364phpMyFAQ - SQL Injection via User-Agent Header in BuiltinCaptcha
    38Monitor
  • CVE-2026-111911phpMyFAQ 4.0.0 before 4.1.9 Authentication Bypass via WebAuthn Credential Injection
    37Monitor
  • CVE-2026-66398phpMyFAQ before 4.1.6 Remote Code Execution via Configuration API
    37Monitor

Published before and after this one in the same product

  • ← EarlierCVE-2026-111891Oct 17, 2026 · phpMyFAQ from 4.2.0-alpha.2 before 4.2.0-beta Privilege Escalation via Group Permissions API
    28Monitor
  • ← EarlierCVE-2026-111892Oct 17, 2026 · phpMyFAQ 4.2.0-alpha before 4.2.0-beta Missing Rate Limiting on Password-Reset Endpoints
    27Monitor
  • Later →CVE-2026-111894Oct 17, 2026 · phpMyFAQ 3.2.1 before 4.1.9 and 4.2.0-alpha before 4.2.0-beta Stored XSS via iframe data: URI
    20Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

Product / packageFixed versionSource
thorsten phpMyFAQ4.2.0-betaVendor (CNA)

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

  1. Published
  2. Fix recordedsame day
  3. TodayNov 13, 2026+27 d
EPSS, last 120 days

FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

  • CVE-2026-6639982 days apartphpMyFAQ before 4.1.6 Privilege Escalation via Group Membership
    34Monitor
  • CVE-2026-1118900 days apartphpMyFAQ 4.2.0-alpha.2 before 4.2.0-beta Privilege Escalation via updateUserRights
    28Monitor
  • CVE-2026-1118910 days apartphpMyFAQ from 4.2.0-alpha.2 before 4.2.0-beta Privilege Escalation via Group Permissions API
    28Monitor
  • CVE-2026-1119090 days apartphpMyFAQ before 4.1.9 Missing Authorization Allows Superadmin Deletion via deleteUser API
    28Monitor

Not on record for this CVE: patch commit or PR link · public bounty program.

Technical details

Attack conditions

  • Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it.
  • Administrator privileges are required.
  • No user action is required.
  • No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

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

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-269 · Improper Privilege Management

CVSS vector

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

nvd-secondary

Root cause

To simplify setup, a service account is granted broad, cluster-wide permissions. The principle of least privilege is skipped during installation.

The bug in code

The whole CWE-269 class

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

Vulnerable

yaml
kind: ClusterRolerules:  - apiGroups: ["*"]    resources: ["*"]    verbs: ["*"]

Fixed

yaml
kind: Rolemetadata:  namespace: lodos-systemrules:  - apiGroups: ["apps"]    resources: ["deployments"]    verbs: ["get", "list", "update"]

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

Change log

  1. SSVC exploitation— → poc
  2. Exploit maturity— → none
  3. Fix✗ → ✓

For records you follow, these changes also arrive as notifications. →

References

Show all references (1 more)

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records