CVE-2024-56199 — phpmyfaq/phpmyfaq
MEDIUMCVE-2024-56199 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.2) Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in phpmyfaq/phpmyfaq. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
phpMyFAQ Vulnerable to Stored HTML Injection at FAQ
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2024-56199.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2024-56199 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,636 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
phpmyfaq/phpmyfaq🐘thorsten/phpmyfaqReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Packagist packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Summary
Due to insufficient validation on the content of new FAQ posts, it is possible for authenticated users to inject malicious HTML or JavaScript code that can impact other users viewing the FAQ. This vulnerability arises when user-provided inputs in FAQ entries are not sanitized or escaped before being rendered on the page.
Details
An attacker can inject malicious HTML content into the FAQ editor at http://localhost/admin/index.php?action=editentry, resulting in a complete disruption of the FAQ page's user interface. By injecting malformed HTML elements styled to cover the entire screen, an attacker can render the page unusable. This injection manipulates the page structure by introducing overlapping buttons, images, and iframes, breaking the intended layout and functionality.
PoC
- In the source code of a FAQ Q&A post, insert the likes of this snippet:
<p><--`<img src="`"> --!></p>
<div style="position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;"><form><button>HTML INJECTION 1<img> <img> <img> <img> <iframe></iframe></button>
<div style="xg-p: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;">x</div>
<button>HTML INJECTION 2<iframe></iframe> <iframe></iframe> </button></form></div>
2. A normal user would see the broken FAQ page, or otherwise manipulated by the attacker to present a different malicious page:
A demo (fresh install overwrites every 24hours) here: https://roy.demo.phpmyfaq.de/content/1/24/en/24.html?
Impact
Exploiting this issue can lead to Denial of Service for legitimate users, damage to the user experience, and potential abuse in phishing or defacement attacks.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | phpmyfaq/phpmyfaq | ≥ 3.2.10 | No fix |
| 🐘Packagist | thorsten/phpmyfaq | ≥ 3.2.10 | No fix |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for phpmyfaq/phpmyfaq, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Remediation status
No patched version of phpmyfaq/phpmyfaq has shipped for CVE-2024-56199 yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
Mitigate without a patch
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2024-56199 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2024-56199. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-56199 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2024-56199 across Packagist dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.