Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 1.7.3
- Affected Version
<= 1.7.2- CVSS
- 8.1High
- Weakness type
- CWE-288 · Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel
- CVE
CVE-2025-1717
At a glance
CVE-2025-1717 is a high-severity Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel vulnerability in the Login Me Now WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.7.2. It carries a CVSS score of 8.1 (reachable over the network; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 1.7.3; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed February 2025, reported by István Márton.
Vulnerability Overview
The Login Me Now plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to authentication bypass in versions up to, and including, 1.7.2. This is due to insecure authentication based on an arbitrary transient name in the 'AutoLogin::listen()' function. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to log in an existing user on the site, even an administrator. Note: this vulnerability requires using a transient name and value from another software, so the plugin is not inherently vulnerable on it's own.
Technical Analysis
The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, and no privileges on the target site, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.
CWE-288: Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel
Login Me Now <= 1.7.2 carries this weakness at listen(), and reaching it takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Authentication bypass through an alternate path means the application has a second route to a protected action that skips the checks the primary route performs.
The protection on the main path becomes irrelevant, because the attacker simply uses the route that never asks. For Login Me Now the fix is 1.7.3: builds <= 1.7.2 are affected, anything from 1.7.3 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 1.7.3, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
Because it turns on account access, WordSec's login security is the relevant layer: role-based two-factor, captcha and brute-force limits raise the cost of getting the account this needs. None of that substitutes for the fix: Login Me Now 1.7.3 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Login Security
- Alerts
External References
Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C