Wordpress Core < 5.5 - Unauthorized Password Reset via Interception

Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password
CVE CVE-2017-8295
CVSS Medium (5.9)
Publicly Published May 3, 2017
Last Updated February 15, 2024
Researcher Dawid Golunski
Description

WordPress up to version 5.5 relies on the Host HTTP header for a password-reset e-mail message, which makes it easier for remote attackers to reset arbitrary passwords by making a crafted wp-login.php?action=lostpassword request and then arranging for this message to bounce or be resent, leading to transmission of the reset key to a mailbox on an attacker-controlled SMTP server. This is related to problematic use of the SERVER_NAME variable in wp-includes/pluggable.php in conjunction with the PHP mail function. Exploitation is not achievable in all cases because it requires at least one of the following: (1) the attacker can prevent the victim from receiving any e-mail messages for an extended period of time (such as 5 days), (2) the victim's e-mail system sends an autoresponse containing the original message, or (3) the victim manually composes a reply containing the original message.

References

1 affected software package

Software Type Core
Software Slug wordpress (view on wordpress.org)
Patched? Yes
Affected Version
  • <= 5.5
Patched Version
  • 5.5
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