What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-27637: FreeScout's Predictable Authentication Token Enables Account Takeover

• Severity: critical (CVSS 9.8 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.8% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: yes
• Published: 2026-02-25 · updated 2026-06-17
• Weakness: CWE-330

Description

FreeScout is a free help desk and shared inbox built with PHP's Laravel framework. Prior to version 1.8.206, FreeScout's `TokenAuth` middleware uses a predictable authentication token computed as `MD5(user_id + created_at + APP_KEY)`. This token is static (never expires/rotates), and if an attacker obtains the `APP_KEY` — a well-documented and common exposure vector in Laravel applications — they can compute a valid token for any user, including the administrator, achieving full account takeover without any password. This vulnerability can be exploited on its own or in combination with CVE-2026-27636. Version 1.8.206 fixes both vulnerabilities.

Affected products

• freescout-help-desk freescout: before 1.8.206 — fixed in 1.8.206

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: freescout-help-desk freescout 1.8.206. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://github.com/freescout-help-desk/freescout/commit/004a8231f6e413af1d4680930b0e2342fd4283f9
• https://github.com/freescout-help-desk/freescout/security/advisories/GHSA-6gcm-v8xf-j9v9
• https://github.com/freescout-help-desk/freescout/security/advisories/GHSA-mw88-x7j3-74vc
• https://github.com/freescout-help-desk/freescout/security/advisories/GHSA-6gcm-v8xf-j9v9
• https://github.com/freescout-help-desk/freescout/security/advisories/GHSA-mw88-x7j3-74vc

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