CaptchaWordPress extension · Bestwebsoft
CVE-2014-9283
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedThe BestWebSoft Captcha plugin before 4.0.7 for WordPress allows remote attackers to bypass the CAPTCHA protection mechanism and obtain administrative access via unspecified vectors.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceThe BestWebSoft Captcha plugin before version 4.0.7 for WordPress contains a vulnerability allowing remote attackers to bypass the CAPTCHA protection mechanism. This bypass enables attackers to potentially gain administrative access to the WordPress site by circumventing the CAPTCHA challenge that normally protects login and registration forms.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
CaptchaWordPress extension
<= 4.0.6CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- None
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Verify BestWebSoft Captcha plugin is installedNavigate to WordPress admin dashboard > Plugins > Installed Plugins and look for 'Bestwebsoft Captcha' in the list. Alternatively, check the /wp-content/plugins/ directory for a folder named 'captcha'.Affected if The plugin appears in the installed plugins list.
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Determine the installed version of the pluginIn WordPress admin > Plugins > Installed Plugins, find the Bestwebsoft Captcha plugin and read the version number displayed beneath the plugin name. Alternatively, inspect the main plugin file (usually captcha.php) and look for the 'Version' header in the file comments.Affected if The version number is 4.0.6 or lower.
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Confirm the plugin is active and enabled for login formsGo to WordPress admin > Settings > Captcha (or BWS Captcha) and check if the plugin is enabled. Look for options related to 'Login form' or 'Registration form' protection being turned on.Affected if The plugin is active AND configured to protect login or registration forms.
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Verify CAPTCHA validation is actually being enforcedTest the login or registration page of the WordPress site by submitting the form without filling in the CAPTCHA field. Check whether the form is rejected or if the submission succeeds despite missing CAPTCHA input.Affected if The form submits successfully without completing the CAPTCHA challenge, indicating the bypass is present.
A user is affected if the BestWebSoft Captcha plugin version 4.0.6 or lower is installed, active, and configured to protect login or registration forms, yet those forms can be submitted without completing the CAPTCHA challenge.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpdate the BestWebSoft Captcha plugin to version 4.0.7 or later. If immediate update is not possible, consider temporarily disabling the plugin or implementing additional authentication layers such as two-factor authentication.
Fix this in Captcha
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,376.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2014-9283 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2014-9283 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data