thorsten phpMyFAQ up to 4.1.6 pgsql PHP extension Pgsql.php escapeLikeWildcards denial of service

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in thorsten phpMyFAQ up to 4.1.6. It has been classified as problematic. This vulnerability affects the function escapeLikeWildcards of the file Search/Database/Pgsql.php of the component pgsql PHP extension. This manipulation causes denial of service. This vulnerability is registered as CVE-2026-76212. Remote exploitation of the attack is possible. No exploit is available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in thorsten phpMyFAQ up to 4.1.6. It has been declared as problematic. Affected by this vulnerability is the function escapeLikeWildcards of the file Search/Database/Pgsql.php of the component pgsql PHP extension. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a denial of service vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-404. The product does not release or incorrectly releases a resource before it is made available for re-use. As an impact it is known to affect availability. The summary by CVE is:

phpMyFAQ before 4.1.7, when configured to use PostgreSQL via the native pgsql PHP extension, declares an incorrect LIKE ESCAPE character ('=') in the Search/Database/Pgsql.php backend while escapeLikeWildcards() escapes user input with the '|' prefix. As a result, wildcard escaping is a no-op and user-supplied % and _ characters remain active LIKE wildcards. An unauthenticated attacker can submit such characters in the public FAQ search form to force maximally broad pattern matches and expensive sequential scans, resulting in a denial of service. The PDO PostgreSQL backend is not affected, and quotes remain escaped so this does not enable quote-breaking SQL injection or data exfiltration.

It is possible to read the advisory at github.com. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-76212 since 08/19/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. The attack can be launched remotely. The exploitation doesn't need any form of authentication. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit. The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1499 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

By approaching the search of inurl:Search/Database/Pgsql.php it is possible to find vulnerable targets with Google Hacking.

Upgrading to version 4.1.7 eliminates this vulnerability.

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Productinfo

Type

• Content Management System

Vendor

• thorsten

Name

• phpMyFAQ

Version

• 4.1.0
• 4.1.1
• 4.1.2
• 4.1.3
• 4.1.4
• 4.1.5
• 4.1.6

License

• open-source

Website

• Product: https://github.com/thorsten/phpMyFAQ/

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