CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2023-28121 — Automattic Woocommerce Payments security vulnerability

Critical CVSS 9.8

An issue in WooCommerce Payments plugin for WordPress (versions 5.6.1 and lower) allows an unauthenticated attacker to send requests on behalf of an elevated user, like administrator. This allows a remote, unauthenticated attacker to gain admin access on a site that has the affected version of the plugin activated.

Severity
Critical
CVSS
9.8 (3.1)
Published
2023-04-12
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
php/wordpress
Weaknesses
CWE-287

Affected products

  • automattic / woocommerce_payments
  • automattic / woopayments
  • automattic / woopayments / 4.9.0
  • automattic / woopayments / 5.3.0
  • automattic / woopayments / 5.4.0

Showing 5 representative product identities from 9 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Authentication bypass and missing authentication

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Check exposure

  • Map every affected endpoint and protocol path, including alternate ports, legacy routes, recovery flows, service accounts, and machine-to-machine access.
  • Confirm which deployments enable the affected authentication mode and whether the interface is reachable from untrusted networks.
  • Review session, token, credential, and proxy trust configuration without attempting account takeover.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and centralize fail-closed authentication before protected request handling.
  • Remove default or embedded credentials, rotate affected secrets and sessions, and bind authentication decisions to the intended audience and channel.
  • Add negative tests for alternate routes, malformed or absent credentials, recovery flows, and proxy-derived identity.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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