VulnerabilityDeferred

CVE-2026-8499

The Helpfulcrowd Product Reviews plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Authorization Bypass via PHP Type Juggling in versions up to, and including, 1.2.9.

MEDIUM 5.3EPSS 0.27%

Does this matter?

Lower severity and a low EPSS score (0.27%). Track it; it rarely justifies an emergency change on its own.

Description

The Helpfulcrowd Product Reviews plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Authorization Bypass via PHP Type Juggling in versions up to, and including, 1.2.9. This is due to the `helpfulcrowd_validate_token()` function using a loose comparison operator (`!=`) instead of a strict comparison (`!==`) when validating the `token` parameter, while the corresponding REST route `/wp-json/helpfulcrowd/v1/update-settings` is registered with a `permission_callback` of `__return_true`, making it reachable by unauthenticated users; submitting a JSON boolean `true` as the `token` value causes PHP's loose comparison to evaluate as equal to the non-empty base64-encoded secret string, bypassing the check entirely. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to invoke `helpfulcrowd_settings_endpoint()` and write arbitrary attacker-controlled key-value pairs directly into the `helpfulcrowd_options` WordPress database option via `update_option()` without any sanitization or allowlist filtering, enabling full unauthenticated modification of the plugin's stored configuration.

CVSS 3.1: 5.3 MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
EPSS: 0.27% probability · 20th percentile
CISA KEV: Not listed
Weakness: CWE-843
Source: security@wordfence.com

References

Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA. Refreshed daily.