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NVD / CVE Program· CNA VulnCheck

CVE-2026-66399: phpMyFAQ before 4.1.6 Privilege Escalation via Group Membership

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: 0.29% (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 4.1.6.

Low priority for now. Upgrade to thorsten phpMyFAQ 4.1.6 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 before 4.1.6 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability in GroupController::updateMembers() that allows administrators with only group-management permissions to join privileged groups without verification of required rights. Attackers can add themselves to pre-existing groups holding user-management rights and immediately inherit those permissions to modify or delete user accounts.

Published
Jul 27, 2026
Updated
Oct 24, 2026
EPSS
0.2% · 22th 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 · 0.2%

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-2026-66399

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

    • 4.1.6not affected
    • before 4.1.6affected · 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-2026-49205Jun 18, 2026 · phpMyFAQ: Missing userHasPermission() in 4 API write endpoints (CVE-2026-24421 Incomplete Fix)
    26Monitor
  • ← EarlierCVE-2026-66397Jul 27, 2026 · phpMyFAQ before 4.1.6 Path Traversal via category image deletion
    34Monitor
  • Later →CVE-2026-85586Sep 4, 2026 · phpMyFAQ before 4.1.8 CAPTCHA Bypass via store parameter
    27Monitor

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 phpMyFAQ4.1.6Vendor (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.

No dated events beyond publication.

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-2026-11189382 days apartphpMyFAQ 4.2.0-alpha before 4.2.0-beta Privilege Escalation via Group Category Restrictions API
    34Monitor
  • CVE-2026-11189082 days apartphpMyFAQ 4.2.0-alpha.2 before 4.2.0-beta Privilege Escalation via updateUserRights
    28Monitor
  • CVE-2026-11189182 days apartphpMyFAQ from 4.2.0-alpha.2 before 4.2.0-beta Privilege Escalation via Group Permissions API
    28Monitor
  • CVE-2026-11190982 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.

References

Show all references (1 more)

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

All records