{"id":"CVE-2026-53595","aliases":["EUVD-2026-46094","GHSA-jqj5-r72v-v29g"],"status":"published","title":"FreeScout vulnerable to anonymous account takeover via /user-setup empty invite_hash on MySQL","description":"FreeScout is a free help desk and shared inbox built with PHP's Laravel framework. Prior to version 1.8.224, the public endpoint `POST /user-setup/{hash}/{invite_sent_at}` (`OpenController@userSetupSave`) selects the target account solely by its `invite_hash` column, then overwrites that account's email and password and logs in as it. No authentication, cookie, or prior session is required. After a user activates, FreeScout sets `invite_hash` to the empty string. On MySQL and MariaDB, `VARCHAR` equality ignores trailing spaces, so a single URL-encoded space (`%20`) matches the stored empty string and selects the lowest-id activated user. The expiry guard decrypts `invite_sent_at` with the target's password hash, but `Helper::decrypt` returns its raw input unchanged when decryption fails. A plaintext numeric value such as `9999999999` therefore passes the time-to-live check without any secret. The result is that an anonymous attacker sets the email and password of the lowest-id activated FreeScout account (a support agent, or an administrator if one was added by invitation) and authenticates as that account. Version 1.8.224 contains a fix.","severity":{"version":"3.1","score":9.4,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:L","level":"critical","assessor":"cna","from":"cve"},"epss":{"day":"2026-11-09","score":0.01945,"percentile":0.80322,"model":"v2026.06.15"},"facts":{"in_kev":false,"known_exploited":false,"public_exploit":true,"fix_available":false},"cwes":["CWE-178","CWE-287","CWE-640"],"published":"2026-07-20T20:14:59Z","modified":"2026-10-28T02:30:32Z","exploits":[{"source":"nuclei","id":"CVE-2026-53595","title":"FreeScout \u003c 1.8.224 - Invite Hash Authorization Bypass","type":"detection template","url":"https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/main/http/cves/2026/CVE-2026-53595.yaml"},{"source":"pocgithub","id":"0xdak/CVE-2026-53595_exploit","title":"0xdak/CVE-2026-53595_exploit","date":"2026-07-21","url":"https://github.com/0xdak/CVE-2026-53595_exploit"}],"products":[{"vendor":"freescout-help-desk","product":"freescout"}],"references":[{"url":"https://github.com/freescout-help-desk/freescout/security/advisories/GHSA-jqj5-r72v-v29g","tags":["x_refsource_CONFIRM","exploit","advisory"]},{"url":"https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/53xxx/CVE-2026-53595.json","tags":["advisory"]},{"url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-53595","tags":["advisory"]}],"sources":{"cve":[{"id":"CVE-2026-53595","title":"FreeScout vulnerable to anonymous account takeover via /user-setup empty invite_hash on MySQL","description":"FreeScout is a free help desk and shared inbox built with PHP's Laravel framework. Prior to version 1.8.224, the public endpoint `POST /user-setup/{hash}/{invite_sent_at}` (`OpenController@userSetupSave`) selects the target account solely by its `invite_hash` column, then overwrites that account's email and password and logs in as it. No authentication, cookie, or prior session is required. After a user activates, FreeScout sets `invite_hash` to the empty string. On MySQL and MariaDB, `VARCHAR` equality ignores trailing spaces, so a single URL-encoded space (`%20`) matches the stored empty string and selects the lowest-id activated user. The expiry guard decrypts `invite_sent_at` with the target's password hash, but `Helper::decrypt` returns its raw input unchanged when decryption fails. A plaintext numeric value such as `9999999999` therefore passes the time-to-live check without any secret. The result is that an anonymous attacker sets the email and password of the lowest-id activated FreeScout account (a support agent, or an administrator if one was added by invitation) and authenticates as that account. Version 1.8.224 contains a fix.","status":"published","published":"2026-07-20T20:14:59.365Z","modified":"2026-07-21T14:56:21.784Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":9.4,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:L","level":"critical","assessor":"cna"}],"cwes":["CWE-178","CWE-287","CWE-640"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:19:59.761005Z"}],"euvd":[{"id":"EUVD-2026-46094","description":"FreeScout is a free help desk and shared inbox built with PHP's Laravel framework. Prior to version 1.8.224, the public endpoint `POST /user-setup/{hash}/{invite_sent_at}` (`OpenController@userSetupSave`) selects the target account solely by its `invite_hash` column, then overwrites that account's email and password and logs in as it. No authentication, cookie, or prior session is required. After a user activates, FreeScout sets `invite_hash` to the empty string. On MySQL and MariaDB, `VARCHAR` equality ignores trailing spaces, so a single URL-encoded space (`%20`) matches the stored empty string and selects the lowest-id activated user. The expiry guard decrypts `invite_sent_at` with the target's password hash, but `Helper::decrypt` returns its raw input unchanged when decryption fails. A plaintext numeric value such as `9999999999` therefore passes the time-to-live check without any secret. The result is that an anonymous attacker sets the email and password of the lowest-id activated FreeScout account (a support agent, or an administrator if one was added by invitation) and authenticates as that account. Version 1.8.224 contains a fix.","status":"published","published":"2026-07-20T20:14:59Z","modified":"2026-07-21T14:56:21Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":9.4,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:L","level":"critical"}],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T18:19:47.436242Z"}],"nvd":[{"id":"CVE-2026-53595","description":"FreeScout is a free help desk and shared inbox built with PHP's Laravel framework. Prior to version 1.8.224, the public endpoint `POST /user-setup/{hash}/{invite_sent_at}` (`OpenController@userSetupSave`) selects the target account solely by its `invite_hash` column, then overwrites that account's email and password and logs in as it. No authentication, cookie, or prior session is required. After a user activates, FreeScout sets `invite_hash` to the empty string. On MySQL and MariaDB, `VARCHAR` equality ignores trailing spaces, so a single URL-encoded space (`%20`) matches the stored empty string and selects the lowest-id activated user. The expiry guard decrypts `invite_sent_at` with the target's password hash, but `Helper::decrypt` returns its raw input unchanged when decryption fails. A plaintext numeric value such as `9999999999` therefore passes the time-to-live check without any secret. The result is that an anonymous attacker sets the email and password of the lowest-id activated FreeScout account (a support agent, or an administrator if one was added by invitation) and authenticates as that account. Version 1.8.224 contains a fix.","status":"published","published":"2026-07-20T21:16:48.417Z","modified":"2026-10-24T20:10:00.137Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":9.4,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:L","level":"critical","assessor":"secondary"}],"cwes":["CWE-178","CWE-287","CWE-640"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:12:31.024898Z"}],"osv":[{"id":"CVE-2026-53595","title":"FreeScout vulnerable to anonymous account takeover via /user-setup empty invite_hash on MySQL","description":"FreeScout is a free help desk and shared inbox built with PHP's Laravel framework. Prior to version 1.8.224, the public endpoint `POST /user-setup/{hash}/{invite_sent_at}` (`OpenController@userSetupSave`) selects the target account solely by its `invite_hash` column, then overwrites that account's email and password and logs in as it. No authentication, cookie, or prior session is required. After a user activates, FreeScout sets `invite_hash` to the empty string. On MySQL and MariaDB, `VARCHAR` equality ignores trailing spaces, so a single URL-encoded space (`%20`) matches the stored empty string and selects the lowest-id activated user. The expiry guard decrypts `invite_sent_at` with the target's password hash, but `Helper::decrypt` returns its raw input unchanged when decryption fails. A plaintext numeric value such as `9999999999` therefore passes the time-to-live check without any secret. The result is that an anonymous attacker sets the email and password of the lowest-id activated FreeScout account (a support agent, or an administrator if one was added by invitation) and authenticates as that account. Version 1.8.224 contains a fix.","status":"published","published":"2026-07-20T20:14:59.365Z","modified":"2026-10-28T02:30:32.227409919Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":9.4,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:L","level":"critical"}],"cwes":["CWE-178","CWE-287","CWE-640"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T15:45:08.132336Z"}]}}