CVE-2025-48390: freescout · Code Injection
Affects freescoutSource CVE Database V5
Not known to be exploited · CVSS 8.6 High : upgrade to 1.8.178 soon.
Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 10:12 UTC
- EPSS
- 0.9% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 61% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
- Patch
- Available – fixed in 1.8.178
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:NExploitation evidence
Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 29 May 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors
A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.
What to do
Upgrade freescout-help-desk/freescout to 1.8.178.
Affected software
| Product | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
GitHubfreescout-help-desk/freescoutpkg:github/freescout-help-desk/freescoutOther threats | Affected
| Fixed in
|
Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.
AI-suggested
- Immediate upgrade of FreeScout to version 1.8.178 or later to apply the official patch that fixes the input validation flaw.
- Restrict administrator privileges strictly to trusted personnel and enforce strong authentication mechanisms such as multi-factor authentication to reduce the risk of credential compromise.
- Conduct regular audits of administrator activities and monitor for unusual creation of language translations or modifications to the php_path parameter in tools.php.
- Implement application-level input validation and sanitization controls to detect and block malicious input patterns, including backticks and other shell metacharacters.
- Employ web application firewalls (WAFs) with custom rules to detect and block attempts to exploit this vulnerability by monitoring for suspicious parameters in HTTP requests.
- Isolate FreeScout servers within segmented network zones with limited access to critical internal systems to contain potential breaches.
- Maintain up-to-date backups of FreeScout data and configurations to enable rapid recovery in case of compromise.
- Educate administrators on secure configuration and the risks of code injection vulnerabilities to prevent inadvertent exposure.
Description
FreeScout is a free self-hosted help desk and shared mailbox. Prior to version 1.8.178, FreeScout is vulnerable to code injection due to insufficient validation of user input in the php_path parameter. The backticks characters are not removed, as well as tabulation is not removed. When checking user input, the file_exists function is also called to check for the presence of such a file (folder) in the file system. A user with the administrator role can create a translation for the language, which will create a folder in the file system. Further in tools.php, the user can specify the path to this folder as php_path, which will lead to the execution of code in backticks. This issue has been patched in version 1.8.178.