freescout-help-desk freescout up to 1.8.213 Email Validation /customers/ajax Customer::create authorization

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability described as problematic has been identified in freescout-help-desk freescout up to 1.8.213. This issue affects the function Customer::create of the file /customers/ajax of the component Email Validation Handler. Such manipulation leads to authorization. This vulnerability is listed as CVE-2026-40590. The attack may be performed from remote. There is no available exploit. Upgrading the affected component is recommended.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in freescout-help-desk freescout up to 1.8.213 and classified as problematic. Affected by this issue is the function Customer::create of the file /customers/ajax of the component Email Validation Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a authorization vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-639. The system's authorization functionality does not prevent one user from gaining access to another user's data or record by modifying the key value identifying the data. Impacted is integrity. CVE summarizes:

FreeScout is a free self-hosted help desk and shared mailbox. Prior to version 1.8.214, the Change Customer modal exposes a “Create a new customer” flow via POST /customers/ajax with action=create. Under limited visibility, the endpoint drops unique-email validation. If the supplied email already belongs to a hidden customer, Customer::create() reuses that hidden customer object and fills empty profile fields from attacker-controlled input. Version 1.8.214 fixes the vulnerability.

The advisory is available at github.com. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-40590 since 04/14/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be launched remotely. Technical details are known, but there is no available exploit.

Upgrading to version 1.8.214 eliminates this vulnerability. The upgrade is hosted for download at github.com. Applying the patch b3d7611e6e173ed8a5e525b791deb6b32cf1ce62 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at github.com. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Productinfo

Vendor

• freescout-help-desk

Name

• freescout

Version

• 1.8.213

License

• open-source

Website

• Product: https://github.com/freescout-help-desk/freescout/

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• 🔒

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If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

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