CVE-2026-40498

CRITICALNVD 9.89.8
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

“—” beside the score: it is equal to NVD's CVSS score.

This critical-severity CVE scores 9.8 under NVD CVSS v3. EPSS exploit probability: 0.6% (47th percentile of EPSS-scored CVEs). No GitHub Security Advisory CVSS is on record for this CVE.

Triggered by: Headline CVSS from NVD CVSS v3
Sources: EPSS, NVD CVSS v3
Elevated

Also known asEUVD-2026-24137 (ENISA EUVD)Source: ENISA EUVD

9.8EG
EchelonGraph verdictPlan a fixRemediate within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high (the SSVC decision on this page).
  • CISA's Vulnrichment rates exploitation as PoC; EchelonGraph holds no exploit-code reference for it
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 0.6%CVSS: 9.8Exploit: No code on recordExposed services: Not assessed

A fix is available — apply it.

FreeScout is a free self-hosted help desk and shared mailbox. Prior to version 1.8.213, an unauthenticated attacker can access diagnostic and system tools that should be restricted to administrators. The /system/cron endpoint relies on a static MD5 hash derived from the APP_KEY, which is exposed in the response and logs. Accessing these endpoints reveals sensitive server information (Full Path Disclosure), process IDs, and allows for Resource Exhaustion (DoS) by triggering heavy background tasks repeatedly without any rate limiting. The cron hash is generated using md5(APP_KEY . 'web_cron_hash'). Since this hash is often transmitted via GET requests, it is susceptible to exposure in server logs, browser history, and proxy logs. Furthermore, the lack of rate limiting on these endpoints allows for automated resource exhaustion (DoS) and brute-force attempts. Version 1.8.213 fixes the issue.

CVSS v3
9.8
EG Score
9.8CRITICALmedium confidence
EG Risk
75
EG Risk 75/100

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score. It fuses impact severity (EG Severity, the CVSS base score, never the KEV-floored or EPSS-lifted EG Score) with real-world exploitation and automatability, under weights EchelonGraph set by hand, so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner.

How it’s computed (value × EchelonGraph’s weight)
Severity98% × 45%
Impact severity (EG Severity): CVSS 9.8 of 10. Never the KEV-floored or EPSS-lifted EG Score.
Exploitation40% × 40%
EchelonGraph's fixed weight for EG-KEV Tier 3 (Elevated): a constant, not a probability.
Automatability100% × 15%
CISA's SSVC Automatable value: yes (Vulnrichment).
SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph): Track at low, Track* at medium and Attend at high mission impact.
Exploitation public PoC (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable yes (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE.
Action: A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high.
EPSS PROB
0.6%
EPSS %ILE
47th
KEV
Not listed

What the EG score is made of (scorer v4.0: the three questions the 0–10 score mixes, published apart · methodology)

The EG score (9.8): severity, escalated by confirmed exploitation. This CVE's 9.8 is its impact severity (EG Severity), not escalated.

EG Severity
9.8 CRITICALCVSS-B, impact only: no KEV listing, EPSS or EG-KEV tier raises it.NVD CVSS v3 · CVSS v3.0 or v3.1
EG Likelihood
0.6% within 30 daysSource: FIRST EPSS (model v2026.06.15, score date 2026-10-28). FIRST's exploitation probability, not an EchelonGraph model.
Confirmed exploitation
None on record (CISA KEV, EG-KEV Tier 1)Reported apart from the likelihood: an observed fact, not a probability.
EG Priority
SSVC Track* at medium mission impactTrack at low, Track* at medium and Attend at high mission impact.CISA BOD 26-04: 3 days if the affected system is publicly exposed; 60 days if it is not.Each input and its source: the SSVC and BOD 26-04 blocks below.

SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph)Track at low, Track* at medium and Attend at high mission impact.

A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high.

Exploitation public PoC (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable yes (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE. Mission impact is CISA's Mission & Well-being decision point, and only you can judge it. CISA's table makes it high when Mission Prevalence is Essential — the vulnerable component "directly provides capabilities that constitute at least one MEF for at least one entity" (MEF: mission essential function) — or when Public Well-Being Impact is Irreversible: "multiple fatalities are likely", the cyber-physical system "is likely lost or destroyed", "extreme or serious externalities" are imposed on other parties, or social systems such as elections or the financial grid "are destabilized and potentially collapse". CISA's decision table

BOD 26-04 (CISA's remediation timeline, Table 1)3 days if the affected system is publicly exposed; 60 days if it is not.

In CISA KEV no (CISA's KEV catalog) · Automatable yes (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). Whether your system is publicly exposed is yours to answer. BOD 26-04 binds US Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies; for anyone else it is CISA's published timeline, a reference rather than an obligation. The directive · how EchelonGraph applies it

Published

April 21, 2026

Last Modified

April 22, 2026

Advisory Details (3)

Auto-updated Oct 8, 2026
Patch available. Sources: github_commit, github_release, github.
GitHub advisoryMentions a patch (unverified)

Authentication Bypass and Information Disclosure in SystemController via /system/cron · Advisory · freescout-help-desk/freescout · GitHub

https://github.com/freescout-help-desk/freescout/security/advisories/GHSA-5jw5-q9j7-4rxc
GitHub release Patch Available

1.8.213

Patch available: freescout-help-desk/freescout 1.8.213

https://github.com/freescout-help-desk/freescout/releases/tag/1.8.213
GitHub commit Patch Available

commit b1d6c2c601a6 (freescout-help-desk/freescout)

Patch available: freescout-help-desk/freescout 1.8.216 (contains commit b1d6c2c601a6)

https://github.com/freescout-help-desk/freescout/commit/b1d6c2c601a6ec3626ab13e679607b5084dfbd38

Weakness Classification(3)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 14× in last 7d / 50× in last 30d)

Each row is a time one of our pipelines fetched, updated or re-scored this CVE. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. An arrow marks a change the record states ("CVSS v3 → 9.1"); EPSS and GHSA rows show the values recorded at that time, not what changed (EPSS values are rounded; hover one for the exact figures). Most recent first.

Showing the most recent 99 of 215 refreshes on record for this CVE.

A repeat, a row identical to one the same pipeline wrote less than 10 seconds earlier, is not a separate refresh and is not counted. 1 repeat row among the latest 100 is merged into the row it repeats. The 116 oldest rows on record are not shown and were not checked, so the counts can still include repeats.

  1. 2026-10-29 16:33 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 47th percentile
  2. 2026-10-29 13:54 UTCEG score recompute
  3. 2026-10-28 16:32 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 47th percentile
  4. 2026-10-28 14:12 UTCEG score recompute
  5. 2026-10-27 16:31 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 47th percentile
  6. 2026-10-27 14:10 UTCEG score recompute
  7. 2026-10-26 16:31 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 46th percentile
  8. 2026-10-26 13:53 UTCEG score recompute
  9. 2026-10-25 16:32 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 46th percentile
  10. 2026-10-25 13:48 UTCEG score recompute
  11. 2026-10-24 16:32 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.7% · 53rd percentile
  12. 2026-10-24 14:04 UTCEG score recompute
  13. 2026-10-23 16:31 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.7% · 53rd percentile
  14. 2026-10-23 14:21 UTCEG score recompute
  15. 2026-10-22 16:34 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.7% · 53rd percentile
  16. 2026-10-22 14:36 UTCEG score recompute
  17. 2026-10-21 16:33 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.7% · 53rd percentile
  18. 2026-10-21 14:39 UTCEG score recompute
  19. 2026-10-20 16:33 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.7% · 53rd percentile
  20. 2026-10-20 14:57 UTCEG score recompute
  21. 2026-10-19 16:32 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.7% · 53rd percentile
  22. 2026-10-19 14:41 UTCEG score recompute
  23. 2026-10-18 03:42 UTCEG score recompute
  24. 2026-10-17 16:34 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.7% · 53rd percentile
  25. 2026-10-17 15:13 UTCEG score recompute
Show 74 more
  1. 2026-10-16 16:42 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.7% · 53rd percentile
  2. 2026-10-16 15:29 UTCEG score recompute
  3. 2026-10-15 16:32 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.7% · 53rd percentile
  4. 2026-10-15 15:40 UTCEG score recompute
  5. 2026-10-14 16:33 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.7% · 53rd percentile
  6. 2026-10-14 09:53 UTCEG score recompute
  7. 2026-10-13 16:34 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.7% · 52nd percentile
  8. 2026-10-13 07:50 UTCEG score recompute
  9. 2026-10-12 16:34 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.7% · 52nd percentile
  10. 2026-10-12 16:09 UTCEG score recompute
  11. 2026-10-11 19:51 UTCEG score recompute
  12. 2026-10-11 17:05 UTCEG score recompute
  13. 2026-10-11 14:31 UTCEG score recompute
  14. 2026-10-11 13:48 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.7% · 52nd percentile
  15. 2026-10-11 04:31 UTCOSV refresh
  16. 2026-10-10 20:00 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.7% · 52nd percentile
  17. 2026-10-09 20:07 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.7% · 52nd percentile
  18. 2026-10-08 17:12 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.7% · 52nd percentile
  19. 2026-10-07 23:48 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.7% · 52nd percentile
  20. 2026-10-06 15:17 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.7% · 52nd percentile
  21. 2026-10-05 17:43 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.7% · 52nd percentile
  22. 2026-10-04 23:22 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.7% · 52nd percentile
  23. 2026-10-03 14:25 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.7% · 52nd percentile
  24. 2026-10-01 19:50 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.7% · 52nd percentile
  25. 2026-09-30 15:03 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.7% · 52nd percentile
  26. 2026-09-27 13:48 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.7% · 52nd percentile
  27. 2026-09-26 15:58 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.7% · 52nd percentile
  28. 2026-09-23 17:53 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 46th percentile
  29. 2026-09-21 17:19 UTCOSV refresh
  30. 2026-09-20 20:15 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 45th percentile
  31. 2026-09-18 19:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 45th percentile
  32. 2026-09-17 19:30 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 45th percentile
  33. 2026-09-16 14:08 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 45th percentile
  34. 2026-09-16 05:15 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 45th percentile
  35. 2026-09-15 03:11 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 45th percentile
  36. 2026-09-13 16:47 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 45th percentile
  37. 2026-09-12 15:01 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 45th percentile
  38. 2026-09-11 14:53 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 45th percentile
  39. 2026-09-11 09:37 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 45th percentile
  40. 2026-09-10 09:34 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 45th percentile
  41. 2026-09-08 22:00 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 45th percentile
  42. 2026-09-07 16:01 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 45th percentile
  43. 2026-09-06 13:47 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 45th percentile
  44. 2026-09-04 05:06 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 45th percentile
  45. 2026-09-02 14:12 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 45th percentile
  46. 2026-09-02 13:56 UTCOSV refresh
  47. 2026-09-01 13:53 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 44th percentile
  48. 2026-09-01 04:39 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 44th percentile
  49. 2026-08-30 19:17 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 44th percentile
  50. 2026-08-30 01:22 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 44th percentile
  51. 2026-08-28 21:41 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 44th percentile
  52. 2026-08-27 14:25 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 44th percentile
  53. 2026-08-26 14:46 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 44th percentile
  54. 2026-08-25 13:49 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 44th percentile
  55. 2026-08-23 00:19 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 44th percentile
  56. 2026-08-21 23:49 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 44th percentile
  57. 2026-08-20 22:55 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 44th percentile
  58. 2026-08-19 17:03 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 44th percentile
  59. 2026-08-18 13:48 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 44th percentile
  60. 2026-08-17 13:47 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 44th percentile
  61. 2026-08-16 14:56 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 44th percentile
  62. 2026-08-16 06:18 UTCEG score recompute
  63. 2026-08-16 02:14 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 44th percentile
  64. 2026-08-15 01:30 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 44th percentile
  65. 2026-08-14 04:29 UTCEG score recompute
  66. 2026-08-13 22:00 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 44th percentile
  67. 2026-08-12 18:40 UTCEG score recompute
  68. 2026-08-12 13:51 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 44th percentile
  69. 2026-08-11 16:51 UTCEG score recompute
  70. 2026-08-11 13:43 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 44th percentile
  71. 2026-08-11 02:27 UTCEG score recompute
  72. 2026-08-11 00:00 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 44th percentile
  73. 2026-08-09 16:33 UTCEG score recompute
  74. 2026-08-09 13:46 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.6% · 44th percentile

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2026-40498?
CVE-2026-40498 is a critical-severity vulnerability; its CVE record was published on April 21, 2026. FreeScout is a free self-hosted help desk and shared mailbox. Prior to version 1.8.213, an unauthenticated attacker can access diagnostic and system tools that should be restricted to administrators. The /system/cron endpoint relies on a static MD5 hash derived from the APPKEY, which is exposed in…
When was the CVE record for CVE-2026-40498 published?
The CVE record for CVE-2026-40498 was published on April 21, 2026. That is the record's publication date; the vulnerability itself may have been made public earlier. EchelonGraph's copy of the record carries a last-modified date of April 22, 2026; the record at its source may have been updated since.
Is CVE-2026-40498 actively exploited?
CVE-2026-40498 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 0.6% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days (47th percentile of EPSS-scored CVEs).
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-40498?
CVE-2026-40498 has a CVSS v3 base score of 9.8 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2026-40498?
A fix for CVE-2026-40498 is available: update to the fixed version the vendor names in its advisory.

Dependency Blast Radius

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