Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-47646

Auth Bypass

Published
23 May 2025
Modified
17 June 2026
CVSS Score v3.1 9.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.24 98th percentile
Risk Priority 85 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-47646 is a critical-severity Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password (CWE-640) vulnerability. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Valid Accounts (T1078); ranked in the top 2% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to IA-12 (Identity Proofing) and IA-5 (Authenticator Management) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

The vulnerability CVE-2025-47646 is a weak password recovery mechanism for forgotten passwords, classified as CWE-640, in the PSW Front-end Login & Registration WordPress plugin. It affects all versions from n/a through 1.13 and received a CVSS 3.1 score of 9.8 reflecting unauthenticated network access with high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit the flawed recovery flow to reset or hijack arbitrary user passwords, leading to full account takeover on sites using the plugin.

The single referenced advisory from Patchstack identifies the issue as a broken authentication vulnerability in version 1.12 and earlier.

EPSS rose from lower values to a peak of 0.1263 on 2026-02-06 before receding to the current 0.0721, indicating post-disclosure exploitation interest that warrants renewed attention.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password vulnerability in Gilblas Ngunte Possi PSW Front-end Login & Registration psw-login-and-registration allows Password Recovery Exploitation.This issue affects PSW Front-end Login & Registration: from n/a through <= 1.13.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1078 Valid Accounts Stealth
Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of existing accounts as a means of gaining Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion.
T1110 Brute Force Credential Access
Adversaries may use brute force techniques to gain access to accounts when passwords are unknown or when password hashes are obtained.
T1110.001 Password Guessing Credential Access
Adversaries with no prior knowledge of legitimate credentials within the system or environment may guess passwords to attempt access to accounts.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-0186Shared CWE-640
CVE-2025-50433Shared CWE-640
CVE-2023-43650Shared CWE-640
CVE-2026-9273Shared CWE-640
CVE-2026-9609Shared CWE-640
CVE-2023-42481Shared CWE-640
CVE-2026-7655Shared CWE-640
CVE-2024-9907Shared CWE-640
CVE-2023-35717Shared CWE-640
CVE-2026-15155Shared CWE-640

Affected Assets

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V7.4.3

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Identity proofing at appropriate assurance levels ensures forgotten-password recovery cannot succeed without strong verification of the user.

Authenticator management requires secure distribution, reset, and verification procedures that directly address weak password recovery flows.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.AA-01 mostly match
prevents

Credential lifecycle management directly includes password reset/recovery flows.

PR.AA-02 mostly match
prevents

Identity proofing is the core control that prevents weak or bypassed recovery mechanisms.

PR.AA-03 partial match
prevents

Authentication policy covers strength/MFA but does not address recovery path weaknesses.

PR.PS-06 partial match
prevents

Secure SDLC reduces implementation flaws but is not specific to password-recovery design.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

degrades

Strong authentication-information lifecycle rules directly address weak password-recovery flows.

prevents

Secure-SDLC practices can embed strong recovery design, yet the control is broader than this single weakness.

prevents

Application-security requirements can mandate secure recovery flows, but the control covers many other requirements.

prevents

Secure-coding standards can prevent weak recovery implementations, yet the control is wider in scope.

mitigates

Secure-authentication requirements include robust forgotten-password procedures.

none

Proper access-rights provisioning can limit who can trigger recovery, but does not fix the recovery mechanism itself.

References