Unauthenticated administrator creation via exposed webservice endpoint
Published Feb 11, 2025 · Updated Mar 14, 2025
Privilege escalation in Jack Hopman WPGateway 3.5 and earlier allows remote attackers to create arbitrary WordPress administrator accounts. The wpgateway-webservice-new.php endpoint handles wp_new_credentials=1 requests without authentication; deeper validation details are undisclosed. Successful exploitation grants complete administrative control of the affected WordPress site, while an observed request alone proves only an attack attempt.
Summary
What happened
Privilege escalation in Jack Hopman WPGateway 3.5 and earlier allows remote attackers to create arbitrary WordPress administrator accounts. The wpgateway-webservice-new.php endpoint handles wp_new_credentials=1 requests without authentication; deeper validation details are undisclosed. Successful exploitation grants complete administrative control of the affected WordPress site, while an observed request alone proves only an attack attempt.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2022-3180
- Published
- Feb 11, 2025
- Updated
- Mar 14, 2025
- Vendor
- Jack Hopman
- Product
- WPGateway
- Classifications
- CWE-290, T1190
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 8, 2022Exploitation reportedWPGateway administrator-account exploitation campaign
- Feb 11, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Mar 14, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=* <=3.5
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Reported exploitation
- WPGateway administrator-account exploitation campaignreported exploitation
Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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