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.

EPSS: 0.267 (97.8th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.

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.

Affected products

Wordpress
N/a — versions n/a

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-640 — Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

cve@mitre.org (Exploit, Third Party Advisory, exploit, x_refsource_EXPLOIT-DB)
cve@mitre.org (Technical Description, Exploit, Third Party Advisory, x_refsource_MISC)
cve@mitre.org (vendor-advisory, x_refsource_DEBIAN)
cve@mitre.org (vdb-entry, x_refsource_SECTRACK)
cve@mitre.org (VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory, vdb-entry, x_refsource_BID)
cve@mitre.org (x_refsource_MISC)

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.