Auth bypass in WordPress

CVE-2008-1930

The cookie authentication method in WordPress 2.5 relies on a hash of a concatenated string containing USERNAME and EXPIRY_TIME, which allows remote attackers to forge cookies by registering a username that results in the same concatenated string, as demonstrated by registering usernames beginning with "admin" to obtain administrator privileges, aka a "cryptographic splicing" issue. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2007-6013.

Vulnerability class: Broken Authentication

Published · last modified .

CVSS v2 metric

CVSS v2 base score 7.5 (High). Vector: AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P. This CVE predates CVSS v3 and has no v3 score from NVD.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.050 (92.0th percentile), scored .

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 92nd percentile — 92.0% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2008-1930: held from 0.050 to 0.050.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.050 · newest: 0.050 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2008-1930?
CVE-2008-1930 is a vulnerability in WordPress, classified under Improper Authentication. Published 2008-04-28.
Is CVE-2008-1930 known to be exploited?
9 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.