Denial of service via mismatched LIKE escaping
Published Aug 19, 2026 · Updated Aug 25, 2026
Denial of service in phpMyFAQ before 4.1.7 allows remote attackers to overload PostgreSQL through public FAQ searches. Pgsql.php declares '=' as the LIKE escape character, while escapeLikeWildcards() prefixes untrusted '%' and '_' input with '|', leaving both wildcards active. Exploitation requires the native pgsql extension and a sufficiently large FAQ corpus; PDO PostgreSQL is unaffected, and impact is limited to service degradation.
Summary
What happened
Denial of service in phpMyFAQ before 4.1.7 allows remote attackers to overload PostgreSQL through public FAQ searches. Pgsql.php declares '=' as the LIKE escape character, while escapeLikeWildcards() prefixes untrusted '%' and '_' input with '|', leaving both wildcards active. Exploitation requires the native pgsql extension and a sufficiently large FAQ corpus; PDO PostgreSQL is unaffected, and impact is limited to service degradation.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-76212
- Published
- Aug 19, 2026
- Updated
- Aug 25, 2026
- Vendor
- Thorsten Rinne
- Product
- phpMyFAQ
- Classifications
- CWE-88, T1499.003
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Aug 19, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 25, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.
Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=4.2.0-alpha <4.1.7
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
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
No public exploit references are available in this record.
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
Check the software in your environment
Book a demo to see how Hinoki identifies affected software and validates exploitability in your environment.
Book a demo