Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HSummary
CVE-2026-12761 is a critical-severity Improper Authentication (CWE-287) 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 38th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and IA-2 (Identification and Authentication (Organizational Users)) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-43026
Vulnerability Data
The miniOrange Social Login and Register (Discord, Google, Twitter, LinkedIn) plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to authentication bypass leading to account takeover in versions up to and including 7.7.0. This is due to the Profile Completion flow accepting an arbitrary…
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email address via the 'email_field' POST parameter without verifying that the email belongs to the identity returned by the OAuth provider, combined with send_otp_token() returning the SHA-512(customer_key || otp) transaction hash to the client where the OTP space is only 99,000 values (wp_rand(1000, 99999)) and the customer_key is a static option (empty on unregistered installs). This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to trigger an OTP email to an arbitrary admin's address, crack the OTP offline from the leaked hash in under a second, and submit the cracked OTP to mo_openid_social_login_validate_otp(), which logs the attacker in as the user whose email was supplied — granting full administrator access.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
CVE-2026-12761 is an authentication bypass in a WordPress OAuth plugin that allows unauthenticated attackers to trigger OTP emails to arbitrary admin accounts, crack the weak OTP offline, and submit the valid OTP to hijack the admin session—directly mapping to exploitation of a public-facing web application (T1190), use of valid local/domain accounts (T1078.003), and offline password/OTP cracking (T1110.002).
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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- 8 hardening rules · 5 OS baselines
V6.4.4V6.5.4V6.5.5V6.5.7
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Enforces identification and authentication of users before granting access, directly blocking the unauthenticated account takeover path that bypasses OAuth identity verification.
Access enforcement ensures the system validates that the authenticated identity matches the requested account, preventing the plugin from logging the attacker in as an arbitrary admin email.
Requires validation of all inputs (including the email_field and OTP values) to reject malformed or attacker-supplied data that enables the bypass.
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-03 directly enforces authentication mechanisms that eliminate most improper-authentication defects, yet CWE-287 spans additional vectors (missing checks, flawed protocols, session handling) that one control does not fully close.
PR.AA-04 directly enables verification of identity assertions (mostly preventing CWE-287 in that scope) yet leaves many other authentication failure modes unaddressed (only partial prevention overall).
PR.AA-01 supplies and governs credentials/tokens that authentication relies on, removing some weak-credential cases, yet leaves verification logic, missing checks, and protocol flaws untouched.
PR.AA-02 ensures valid enrollment and unique credential binding, which reduces some improper-auth risks at issuance time but leaves runtime claim verification untouched, so each direction only partially addresses the other.
PR.PS-01 can enforce auth-related settings via hardened baselines and default reviews, blocking some config-based instances of CWE-287, yet leaves code-level auth flaws untouched so neither direction reaches mostly.
Patching/maintenance can remediate some known auth vulnerabilities after deployment (partial forward) but does not address the design or implementation of authentication logic itself (none reverse).
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.
Requiring authentication methods whose strength matches the sensitivity of the data and mandating multi-factor authentication directly blocks attempts to access resources without proving identity.
Verifying user identity before issuing replacement credentials and forcing changes after compromise reduces the likelihood that authentication bypass can be achieved through stolen or weak credentials.
Mandating segregated approval and oversight for non-human identities reduces the chance that weak or orphaned credentials can be exploited for unauthorized authentication.
Requiring authentication mechanisms and technical parameters for secure connections ensures that network services verify user identity before granting access, preventing exploitation of missing or weak authentication.
Security requirements specified early and verified through testing drive the consistent implementation of authentication mechanisms, decreasing the likelihood that authentication steps are omitted or incorrectly applied.
Defining the required level of trust in entity identity and the authentication mechanisms to achieve it ensures that authentication is explicitly addressed rather than omitted.