User Verification by PickPlugins <= 2.0.46 - Unauthenticated Authentication Bypass via OTP Verification REST API Endpoint
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 2.0.47
- Affected Plugin
- User Verification by PickPlugins
- Affected Version
<= 2.0.46- CVSS
- 9.8Critical
- Weakness type
- CWE-288 · Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel
- CVE
CVE-2026-7458
At a glance
CVE-2026-7458 is a critical-severity Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel vulnerability in the User Verification by PickPlugins WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.0.46. It carries a CVSS score of 9.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 2.0.47; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed May 2026, reported by kai63001.
Vulnerability Overview
The User Verification by PickPlugins plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to authentication bypass in all versions up to, and including, 2.0.46. This is due to the use of a loose PHP comparison operator to validate OTP codes in the "user_verification_form_wrap_process_otpLogin" function. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to log in as any user with a verified email address, such as an administrator, by submitting a "true" OTP value.
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. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.
CWE-288: Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel
User Verification by PickPlugins <= 2.0.46 carries this weakness at user_verification_form_wrap_process_otpLogin, and reaching it takes no account at all. 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 User Verification by PickPlugins the fix is 2.0.47: builds <= 2.0.46 are affected, anything from 2.0.47 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 2.0.47, 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: User Verification by PickPlugins 2.0.47 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Login Security
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C