CVE-2026-57961
CVE-2026-57961 is a Path Traversal vulnerability in thorsten/phpmyfaq. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2026-57961 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
phpMyFAQ - Authenticated Path Traversal in PDF Export via concatenatePaths Function
Real-World Exposure
thorsten/phpmyfaq🐘phpmyfaq/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
phpMyFAQ before 4.1.5 contains a potential authenticated path traversal vulnerability in the concatenatePaths() function within src/phpMyFAQ/Export/Pdf/Wrapper.php. A user with FAQ editing privileges can store HTML containing crafted image paths that are processed during PDF generation. The path resolution logic locates the substring "content" within a user-controlled path using strpos(); when "content" is absent, strpos() returns false, which becomes 0 when cast to an integer, preserving the entire attacker-controlled path. This path is later passed to file_get_contents() without canonicalization or root-directory containment validation, which may allow reading of files outside the intended content directory.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | thorsten/phpmyfaq | ≥ 4.0.0-alpha&&< 4.1.5 | 4.1.5 |
| 🐘Packagist | phpmyfaq/phpmyfaq | ≥ 4.0.0-alpha&&< 4.1.5 | 4.1.5 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for thorsten/phpmyfaq. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update thorsten/phpmyfaq to 4.1.5 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-57961 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
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 pinpoints whether CVE-2026-57961 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to CVE-2026-57961. 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-2026-57961 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2026-57961 across Packagist dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.