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WordPressCMS

CVE-2022-43504

MEDIUM · 5.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-12-05
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 3.7.40 / 3.8.40 or later.
See remediation →
62/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available

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 · unedited
Improper authentication vulnerability in WordPress versions prior to 6.0.3 allows a remote unauthenticated attacker to obtain the email address of the user who posted a blog using the WordPress Post by Email Feature. The developer also provides new patched releases for all versions since 3.7.

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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-287

The mechanism that verifies who a user is can be side-stepped or fooled, letting an attacker act as someone they're not. Everything built on top of that identity then becomes untrustworthy. Fixing it means hardening the full authentication flow, including edge cases, tokens, and secondary paths.

General guidance for the improper authentication class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

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
Affected:< 3.7.40>= 3.8, < 3.8.40>= 3.9, < 3.9.39>= 4.0, < 4.0.37>= 4.1, < 4.1.37>= 4.2, < 4.2.34>= 4.3, < 4.3.30>= 4.4, < 4.4.29>= 4.5, < 4.5.28>= 4.6, < 4.6.25>= 4.7, < 4.7.25>= 4.8, < 4.8.21

CVSS 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
Low
Integrity
None
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 3.7.40 / 3.8.40 / 3.9.39 or later
Fixed in 3.7.403.8.403.9.39
Vendor patch wordpress.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

WordPress 6.0.3 (vendor also provided patched releases: 3.7.40, 3.8.40, 3.9.39, 4.0.37, and intermediate versions up to 6.0.3)

  1. Check your current WordPress version in the WordPress admin dashboard under Dashboard > Updates or in the site footer
  2. If you are running a version below 6.0.3, initiate the upgrade through Dashboard > Updates > Update Now
  3. Alternatively, download the latest patched version from https://wordpress.org/download/releases/ and manually upload via FTP or your hosting control panel
  4. Ensure you have a complete backup of your WordPress database and files before upgrading
  5. After upgrading, verify the Post by Email feature settings are still configured correctly under Settings > Writing > Post by Email
  6. Check WordPress admin email address to confirm no unauthorized changes occurred
Caveat Minor releases typically have low risk; ensure plugins/themes are compatible with your target version before production upgrade

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,600. Get the upgrade done

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2022-43504 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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