Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-12417

Critical

Published: 24 June 2026

Published
24 June 2026
Modified
29 June 2026
KEV Added
Patch
CVSS Score v3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0045 36.3th percentile
Risk Priority 70 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-12417 is a critical-severity Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password (CWE-640) vulnerability in Wordpress (inferred from references). Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 36.3th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability details

The SignUp & SignIn plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Authentication Bypass via Weak Password Reset Validation leading to Account Takeover in versions up to, and including, 1.0.0. This is due to the `pravel_change_password()` AJAX handler — registered via `wp_ajax_nopriv_pravel_change_password`…

more

and therefore accessible to unauthenticated users — performing no nonce verification, no capability check, and only a loose equality check between an attacker-supplied `reset_activation_code` POST parameter and the target user's `forgot_email` user meta value; when a user has never initiated a password reset, `get_user_meta()` returns an empty string that trivially satisfies this check against an omitted or empty attacker-supplied code. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to change the password of any WordPress user, including administrators, by sending a crafted POST request to `admin-ajax.php` with `action=pravel_change_password`, `reset_user_id` set to the target account's user ID, and `new_password_custom` set to an attacker-chosen password. Successful exploitation allows the attacker to authenticate with the newly set password and fully take over the targeted account, achieving administrator-level privilege escalation on the affected site.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
T1078.003 Local Accounts Stealth
Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of a local account as a means of gaining Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion.
Why these techniques?

Direct unauthenticated remote exploitation of WordPress AJAX endpoint (T1190) to arbitrarily reset passwords and obtain valid admin accounts (T1078.003).

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

Affected Assets

Wordpress
inferred from references and description; NVD did not file a CPE for this CVE

Mitigating Controls

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

addresses: CWE-640

Establishing procedures for lost or compromised authenticators addresses weak password recovery mechanisms.

References