CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2016-9492 — The code generated by PHP FormMail Generator prior to 17 December 2016 is vulnerable to unrestricted upload of dangerous file types

Critical CVSS 9.8

The code generated by PHP FormMail Generator prior to 17 December 2016 is vulnerable to unrestricted upload of dangerous file types. In the generated form.lib.php file, upload file types are checked against a hard-coded list of dangerous extensions. This list does not include all variations of PHP files, which may lead to execution of the contained PHP code if the attacker can guess the uploaded filename. The form by default appends a short random string to the end of the filename.

Severity
Critical
CVSS
9.8 (3.0)
Published
2018-07-13
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-434

Affected products

  • jqueryform / php_formmail_generator

Matched remediation archetype

Path traversal, unsafe upload, and file handling

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Trace untrusted filenames, archive entries, URLs, and path segments into read, write, include, extraction, and upload operations.
  • Identify filesystem roots, mount permissions, symbolic-link behavior, archive handling, and whether uploaded content is web-accessible or executable.
  • Review canonicalization and containment checks across supported operating systems and storage backends.

Remediate safely

  • Generate server-side storage identifiers and resolve paths beneath a fixed root using filesystem-aware containment checks.
  • Reject absolute, parent-relative, alternate-separator, device, link, and archive entries that escape the intended root.
  • Store uploads outside executable or served paths, validate type and size, and use private atomic temporary files.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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