CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2026-8181 — Burst Statistics security vulnerability

Critical CVSS 9.8

The Burst Statistics – Privacy-Friendly WordPress Analytics (Google Analytics Alternative) plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Authentication Bypass in versions 3.4.0 to 3.4.1.1. This is due to incorrect return-value handling in the `is_mainwp_authenticated()` function when validating application passwords from the Authorization header. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers, with knowledge of an administrator username, to impersonate that administrator for the duration of the request by supplying any random Basic Authentication password achieving privilege escalation.

Severity
Critical
CVSS
9.8 (3.1)
Published
2026-05-14
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
php/wordpress
Weaknesses
CWE-287

Affected products

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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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