User Email Verification for WooCommerce <= 3.5.0 - Authentication Bypass
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Unpatched
- Affected Plugin
- User Email Verification for WooCommerce
- Affected Version
<= 3.5.0- CVSS
- 8.1High
- Weakness type
- CWE-288 · Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel
- CVE
CVE-2023-2781
At a glance
CVE-2023-2781 is a high-severity Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel vulnerability in the User Email Verification for WooCommerce WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 3.5.0. It carries a CVSS score of 8.1 (reachable over the network; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. No fixed release has been reported yet; treat installations running this software as exposed. Disclosed June 2023, reported by István Márton.
Vulnerability Overview
The User Email Verification for WooCommerce plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to authentication bypass via authenticate_user_by_email in versions up to, and including, 3.5.0. This is due to a random token generation weakness in the resend_verification_email function. This allows unauthenticated attackers to impersonate users and trigger an email address verification for arbitrary accounts, including administrative accounts, and automatically be logged in as that user, including any site administrators. This requires the Allow Automatic Login After Successful Verification setting to be enabled, which it is not by default.
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
Reaching this weakness in User Email Verification for WooCommerce <= 3.5.0 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. No fixed build of this plugin is recorded for User Email Verification for WooCommerce yet, so installs running <= 3.5.0 stay exposed until the vendor ships one.
Remediation
No known patch available. Please review the vulnerability's details in depth and employ mitigations based on your organization's risk tolerance. It may be best to uninstall the affected software and find a replacement.
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. No patched version is recorded yet, which is the case where a filtering layer matters most, because there is nothing to update to.
- Login Security
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Other vulnerabilities in User Email Verification for WooCommerce
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