What is CVE-2017-8295?

CVE-2017-8295 is a medium-severity vulnerability in WordPress, classified under Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password. CVSS score: 5.9/10. Published 2017-05-04.

How severe is CVE-2017-8295?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.9 out of 10.

Is CVE-2017-8295 known to be exploited?

29 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Vulnerability in WordPress

CVE-2017-8295

WordPress through 4.7.4 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.

Published 2017-05-04 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.9 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.267 (98.0th percentile), scored 2026-09-28.

Moderate probability of exploitation in the next 30 days — watch for active exploitation reports. 98th percentile — 98.0% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.267 · newest: 0.267 · change: 0.000

Affected products

WordPress

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-640 — Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

www.exploit-db.com/exploits/41963/ (Exploit, Third Party Advisory, exploit)
exploitbox.io/vuln/WordPress-Exploit-4-7-Unauth-Password-Reset-0day-CVE-2017-82… (Technical Description, Exploit, Third Party Advisory)
www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3870 (vendor-advisory)
www.securitytracker.com/id/1038403 (vdb-entry)
www.securityfocus.com/bid/98295 (VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory, vdb-entry)
wpvulndb.com/vulnerabilities/8807

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2017-8295?: CVE-2017-8295 is a medium-severity vulnerability in WordPress, classified under Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password. CVSS score: 5.9/10. Published 2017-05-04.
How severe is CVE-2017-8295?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.9 out of 10.
Is CVE-2017-8295 known to be exploited?: 29 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.