Administrative takeover via unbound TOTP brute-force
Published May 15, 2026 · Updated May 15, 2026
Authentication bypass in phpMyFAQ before 4.1.2 allows remote attackers to gain administrative access by brute-forcing TOTP codes. The AuthenticationController exempts every route from authentication, and /admin/check accepts attacker-selected user-id and six-digit token values without binding them to a password-verified session or limiting failures. Default installations expose the POST route remotely; a successful guess calls twoFactorSuccess() and creates a fully authenticated administrative session with access to users, content, configuration, and exports.
Summary
What happened
Authentication bypass in phpMyFAQ before 4.1.2 allows remote attackers to gain administrative access by brute-forcing TOTP codes. The AuthenticationController exempts every route from authentication, and /admin/check accepts attacker-selected user-id and six-digit token values without binding them to a password-verified session or limiting failures. Default installations expose the POST route remotely; a successful guess calls twoFactorSuccess() and creates a fully authenticated administrative session with access to users, content, configuration, and exports.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-45010
- Published
- May 15, 2026
- Updated
- May 15, 2026
- Vendor
- Thorsten Rinne
- Product
- phpMyFAQ
- Classifications
- CWE-307, T1190
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 15, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 15, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=0 <4.1.2
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- GHSA-9pq7-mfwh-xx2j proof of conceptproof of concept · demonstrated
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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