FreeScout: Cross-User Notification Data Disclosure via LIKE Wildcard Injection in Polycast Channel Query
Affects FreeScout versions below 1.8.226. The polycast routes skip the auth middleware, and the fix is in 1.8.226.
Written by anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5 from the sources below. Verify against them.
- Exploited
- No known exploitation
- Fix
- Fixed in 1.8.226
- Who is exposed
- Specific setups only
Do first: Check whether your setup matches what the bug needs. FreeScout version 1.8.225 (affected versions are below 1.8.226) The polycast routes are reachable with only the web middleware group (session and CSRF), without the auth middleware
- Published
- Last modified
- A 0-100 score for how much a CVE matters across the industry: exploitation, exposure, how widely the software is used, severity and whether a fix exists.What do these mean? →
- 16/100 · provisional
- How many real-world setups can hit the bug, from the vendor's advisory and CISA data. It does not know your setup.What do these mean? →
- Specific setups only
- Whether working attack code is public (Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei or GitHub). Public code makes attacks easier.What do these mean? →
- None on Exploit-DB, Metasploit or GitHub
Summary
FreeScout, a self-hosted help desk and shared mailbox application, lets a remote attacker with only a low-privilege guest session read other users' notification data, including conversation message content, identifiers, URLs, and notification HTML across users and mailboxes. The flaw is that a wildcard channel name in a query goes unescaped and bypasses the authorization check, and the notification output has no matching access check.
Read the original description
FreeScout is a self-hosted help desk and shared mailbox application. Prior to version 1.8.226, the polycast/receive endpoint fails to escape SQL LIKE wildcards in supplied channel names, while channel authorization applies only to names with specific prefixes. An unauthenticated attacker with a guest session and valid CSRF token can submit a wildcard channel name to retrieve matching notification events intended for other users. Notification payload generation lacks a corresponding access check, exposing conversation message content, identifiers, URLs, and notification HTML across users and mailboxes. This issue is fixed in version 1.8.226.
cve.now Index
- Exploitation?/40Unknown. No CISA SSVC exploitation rating yet
- Exposure8/25Specific setups only, reachable over the network
- Reach?/20Unknown. No tracked technology or package matched
- Severity7.7/10CVSS 7.7
- No patch0/5No signal
What would change the score
- Would score about 66 if added to CISA KEV
- Would score about 61 if CISA's SSVC rates exploitation active
- Would score about 23 if CISA's SSVC rates it automatable
What to do
Check whether your setup matches what the bug needs.
FreeScout version 1.8.225 (affected versions are below 1.8.226) The polycast routes are reachable with only the web middleware group (session and CSRF), without the auth middlewareUpgrade to a fixed version: 1.8.226.
Timeline
- CVE published
- First seen by cve.now
Affected versions
- freescout-help-desk freescout
fixed in 1.8.226
Evidence 4
- Advisory
- Repository
- Repository
- Repository
Corrections
None so far.
Something wrong on this page? Report an error. Every fix is listed here.
Questions about CVE-2026-62856
Is CVE-2026-62856 being exploited?
It is not in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, and CISA's SSVC assessment does not mark exploitation as active. That does not mean it has not been attacked: vendors and researchers can report attacks before CISA lists them. No public exploit code is tracked.Source: cve.now feed data
What does this mean?
The polycast routes are reached with only session and CSRF checks, without the auth middleware. A LIKE wildcard in the channel query lets a logged-in user read notification data meant for other users, including message content, conversation identifiers and URLs, and notification HTML across users and mailboxes.Source: github.com
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-62856?
freescout: before 1.8.226.Source: cve.now feed data
Am I affected, and how do I check?
The advisory lists FreeScout versions below 1.8.226 as affected, and it cites v1.8.225 as the latest release at reporting time. Compare the installed FreeScout version with 1.8.226 to check the version side.Source: github.com
How do I fix CVE-2026-62856?
Upgrade FreeScout to 1.8.226, the patched version listed in the advisory. The facts give no workaround.Source: github.com
Why do the sources disagree?
The CVSS vector scores the issue as needing low privileges (PR:L), but the advisory description says the polycast routes lack the auth middleware, which reads as an unauthenticated route. The sources conflict on whether a login is needed to reach the flaw.Source: github.com