Protect WP Admin <= 3.8 - Unauthenticated Information Disclosure to Protection Bypass
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 4.0
- Affected Plugin
- Protect WP Admin
- Affected Version
<= 3.8- CVSS
- 5.3Medium
- Weakness type
- CWE-200 · Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor
- CVE
CVE-2023-3139
At a glance
CVE-2023-3139 is a medium-severity Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor vulnerability in the Protect WP Admin WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 3.8. It carries a CVSS score of 5.3 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 4.0; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed June 2023, reported by Daniel Ruf.
Vulnerability Overview
The Protect WP Admin plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to information disclosure in versions up to, and including, 3.8. This is due to a data leak when performing a redirect after processing a crafted request. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to disclose the URL of the admin panel and bypass intended protections.
Technical Analysis
The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, with low attack complexity — no special timing or configuration is needed, and no privileges on the target site, and no interaction from a victim user.
CWE-200: Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor
Reaching this weakness in Protect WP Admin <= 3.8 takes no account at all. Sensitive information exposure means data the application intended to keep internal is returned to a caller who should not be able to see it.
The disclosed data — credentials, tokens, customer records or internal paths — is usually worth more as material for a follow-up attack than as an end in itself. For Protect WP Admin the fix is 4.0: builds <= 3.8 are affected, anything from 4.0 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 4.0, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
This one needs no account at all, which puts it outside what login hardening can reach; WordSec's login security narrows the account-level paths around it, and the firewall is what inspects the request itself. None of that substitutes for the fix: Protect WP Admin 4.0 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Login Security
- Alerts
External References
Related records
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