CVE-2026-53593

high

Description

FreeScout is a free help desk and shared inbox built with PHP's Laravel framework. Prior to version 1.8.224, the denylist that neutralizes dangerous file uploads (`Helper::$restricted_extensions`) is incomplete: it does not cover the `.pht` extension. The authenticated upload endpoint `POST /uploads/upload` (`SecureController@upload`) stores files with their original extension into the web-accessible directory `storage/app/public/uploads/` (served at `/storage/uploads/`). On the standard Apache + `libapache2-mod-php` deployment, the default handler `<FilesMatch ".+\.ph(ar|p[3457]?|t|tml)$">` executes `.pht`, so **any authenticated agent can upload a `.pht` web shell and run arbitrary commands as the web-server user** (`www-data`). This is a direct bypass of the fix for CVE-2025-48471, which added `phtml`/`phar` but not `pht` (nor `phtm`, `phps`). Version 1.8.224 contains an updated fix.

References

https://github.com/freescout-help-desk/freescout/security/advisories/GHSA-27vp-fpg8-j8wv

Details

Source: Mitre, NVD

Published: 2026-07-20

Updated: 2026-07-21

Risk Information

CVSS v2

Base Score: 9

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C

Severity: High

CVSS v3

Base Score: 8.8

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Severity: High

EPSS

EPSS: 0.00081