WordPressCMS
CVE-2018-20151
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 · uneditedIn WordPress before 4.9.9 and 5.x before 5.0.1, the user-activation page could be read by a search engine's web crawler if an unusual configuration were chosen. The search engine could then index and display a user's e-mail address and (rarely) the password that was generated by default.
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 · high confidenceThis is an information disclosure vulnerability in WordPress where the user-activation page could be indexed by search engines under certain unusual configurations, allowing exposed email addresses and occasionally default-generated passwords to appear in search results.
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
WordPressCMS
< 4.9.9>= 5.0, < 5.0.1
Debian LinuxOperating system
= 8.0= 9.0CVSS 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
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/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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Check installed WordPress versionNavigate to Dashboard > Updates or check the version in wp-includes/version.php. Alternatively, access the XML-RPC API endpoint /xmlrpc.php?rsd and inspect the generator tag.Affected if The installed version is less than 4.9.9, or is 5.0.0 (i.e., the version falls within < 4.9.9 or >= 5.0, < 5.0.1)
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Verify user registration is enabledIn the WordPress admin, go to Settings > General > Membership and confirm 'Anyone can register' is checked. Alternatively, inspect the 'users_can_register' option in the wp_options table or via WP-CLI: wp option get users_can_register.Affected if User registration is enabled and the WordPress version is vulnerable as noted above
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Identify accessible user activation URLsCheck for the presence of wp-activate.php in the WordPress root directory. Determine if activation URLs of the form /?act=activation_key or /wp-activate.php?key=activation_key are accessible (no authentication required).Affected if The activation page is publicly accessible and returns a valid response with user email or activation details
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Inspect search engine index for activation pagesSearch using site:yourdomain.com "wp-activate" or site:yourdomain.com "activation_key" in search engines. Also search for patterns matching email addresses that correspond to newly registered users.Affected if Any user activation URLs, email addresses, or default-generated passwords appear in public search results
A user is affected if their WordPress version is vulnerable (less than 4.9.9 or 5.0.0) AND user registration is enabled AND the activation pages or user email addresses are indexed by search engines.
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 data4.9.95.0.1
Update WordPress to version 4.9.9 or 5.0.1 or later, and audit search engine indexing to remove any indexed activation pages containing sensitive user data.
Fix this in WordPress
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing3.0 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 $2,224.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-20151 — 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-2018-20151 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