Easy Digital Downloads <= 3.7.2 - Unauthenticated Authentication Bypass to Administrator Account Takeover via Guest Checkout Email Binding at PayPal Capture

MITRE NVD CVE.ORG JSON API

Summary

CVECVE-2026-120538
StatePUBLISHED
AssignerWordfence
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2026-11-03 05:18:32 UTC
Updated2026-11-03 05:18:32 UTC
DescriptionThe Easy Digital Downloads plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to authentication bypass leading to administrator account takeover in all versions up to, and including, 3.7.2. During a PayPal guest checkout, the email address entered in the guest-checkout field is trusted as proof of identity: edd_get_purchase_form_user() binds the new guest order to an existing WordPress user purely on an email-address match, rewriting the order's user_id to that user's ID. The PayPal capture sink PurchaseUser::maybe_log_in_after_capture() then looked the user up by the order email (get_user_by( 'email', $order->email )) and, when $order->user_id equalled that user's ID (which the email-binding step guarantees), issued an authenticated session with wp_set_auth_cookie(). An unauthenticated attacker who starts a guest checkout using an administrator's email address (where that administrator has no existing EDD customer record) and completes the PayPal purchase flow therefore receives an authenticated session as that administrator — a full account takeover. The same sink is reachable through the standard PayPal checkout and the REST UnbrandedCard and Fastlane flows.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 8.1 HIGH from [email protected]

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

Problem Types: CWE-287 | CWE-287 CWE-287 Improper Authentication

VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
3.1[email protected]Primary8.1HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
3.1CNADECLARED8.1HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
High
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

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

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA Smub Easy Digital Downloads ECommerce Payments And Subscriptions Made Easy affected 3.7.2 semver Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/easy-digital-downloads/tags/3.7.0/includes/customers/... [email protected] plugins.trac.wordpress.org
plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/easy-digital-downloads/tags/3.7.0/includes/user-funct... [email protected] plugins.trac.wordpress.org
plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/easy-digital-downloads/tags/3.7.0/includes/orders/fun... [email protected] plugins.trac.wordpress.org
plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/easy-digital-downloads/tags/3.7.0/includes/gateways/p... [email protected] plugins.trac.wordpress.org
www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/f4250328-6d6c-4eb1-9ef2-33477... [email protected] www.wordfence.com
plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/easy-digital-downloads/tags/3.7.0/src/Gateways/PayPal... [email protected] plugins.trac.wordpress.org
wordpress.org/plugins/easy-digital-downloads [email protected] wordpress.org
CVE Program record CVE.ORG www.cve.org canonical
NVD vulnerability detail NVD nvd.nist.gov canonical, analysis

Vendor Comments And Credit

Discovery Credit

CNA: Yuto Hyakumoto (en)

Additional Advisory Data

SourceTimeEvent
CNA2026-10-14T17:29:02.000ZVendor Notified
CNA2026-10-30T15:10:12.000ZDisclosed

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