CyberRota Analysis
AI-GeneratedFreeScout versions prior to 1.8.224 are vulnerable to a critical authentication bypass, allowing unauthenticated attackers to overwrite the email and password of the lowest-id activated user account. This exploit leverages flaws in the handling of the `invite_hash` and decryption processes, enabling unauthorized access to potentially sensitive accounts, including support agents and administrators. Organizations using FreeScout should prioritize patching to version 1.8.224 to mitigate this severe risk.
Public Exploit Signal
A public exploit, PoC, GitHub repository or Metasploit reference was detected for this CVE.
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Original NVD Description
FreeScout is a free help desk and shared inbox built with PHP's Laravel framework. Prior to version 1.8.224, the public endpoint `POST /user-setup/{hash}/{invite_sent_at}` (`OpenController@userSetupSave`) selects the target account solely by its `invite_hash` column, then overwrites that account's email and password and logs in as it. No authentication, cookie, or prior session is required. After a user activates, FreeScout sets `invite_hash` to the empty string. On MySQL and MariaDB, `VARCHAR` equality ignores trailing spaces, so a single URL-encoded space (`%20`) matches the stored empty string and selects the lowest-id activated user. The expiry guard decrypts `invite_sent_at` with the target's password hash, but `Helper::decrypt` returns its raw input unchanged when decryption fails. A plaintext numeric value such as `9999999999` therefore passes the time-to-live check without any secret. The result is that an anonymous attacker sets the email and password of the lowest-id activated FreeScout account (a support agent, or an administrator if one was added by invitation) and authenticates as that account. Version 1.8.224 contains a fix.