JSON API Auth <= 3.1.2 - Unauthenticated Authentication Bypass via Cached 'generate_auth_cookie' Response

Summary

CVE	CVE-2026-97637
State	PUBLISHED
Assigner	Wordfence
Source Priority	CVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published	2026-10-02 08:17:05 UTC
Updated	2026-10-02 13:18:55 UTC
Description	The JSON API Auth plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Authentication Bypass via Cached Session Cookie Disclosure in all versions up to, and including, 3.1.2. The vulnerability exists because the required PI-Media/json-api parent plugin caches controller dispatch results in transients keyed solely by URI and query string, ignoring HTTP method and POST body; this causes the `generate_auth_cookie()` endpoint — which embeds a live WordPress `logged_in` cookie produced by `wp_generate_auth_cookie()` directly in its JSON response body — to serve that cached authenticated response to any subsequent unauthenticated GET request to the same URI. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to retrieve a valid Administrator `logged_in` session cookie from the cached response and use it to fully authenticate as the site Administrator, including via the same plugin's `get_currentuserinfo` endpoint and any cookie-authenticated controller action. Exploitation requires the PI-Media/json-api parent plugin to be installed and active with the Auth controller enabled, and a legitimate Administrator must have POSTed to `/api/auth/generate_auth_cookie/` within the preceding 24-hour cache TTL; the nominal HTTPS enforcement gate present in `Auth.php` is trivially bypassed by supplying `insecure=cool` as a request parameter.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 9.8 CRITICAL from [email protected]

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

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

Version	Source	Type	Score	Severity	Vector
3.1	[email protected]	Primary	9.8	CRITICAL	`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`
3.1	CNA	DECLARED	9.8	CRITICAL	`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

Attack Vector

Network

Attack Complexity

Low

Privileges Required

None

User Interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

High

Integrity

High

Availability

High

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

Vendor Declared Affected Products

Source	Vendor	Product	Version	Platforms
CNA	Parorrey	JSON API Auth	affected 3.1.2 semver	Not specified

References

Reference	Source	Link	Tags
plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/json-api-auth/tags/3.1.2/controllers/Auth.php	[email protected]	plugins.trac.wordpress.org
plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset	[email protected]	plugins.trac.wordpress.org
plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/json-api-auth/tags/3.1.2/controllers/Auth.php	[email protected]	plugins.trac.wordpress.org
plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/json-api-auth/tags/3.1.2/controllers/Auth.php	[email protected]	plugins.trac.wordpress.org
www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/f2fdf8bf-7f53-4579-9a1f-be7b3...	[email protected]	www.wordfence.com
plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/json-api-auth/tags/3.1.2/controllers/Auth.php	[email protected]	plugins.trac.wordpress.org
plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/json-api-auth/tags/3.1.2/json-api-auth.php	[email protected]	plugins.trac.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: Chi Trung Huynh (en)

Additional Advisory Data

Source	Time	Event
CNA	2026-09-24T18:15:51.000Z	Vendor Notified
CNA	2026-10-01T19:01:23.000Z	Disclosed

There are currently no legacy QID mappings associated with this CVE.