Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessIdentify WordPress site with vulnerable Captcha plugin
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ExploitCraft form request bypassing captcha check
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ExecutionSubmit without solving challenge
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ImpactAutomate abuse (spam/brute-force)
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A07:2025 - Authentication Failures
ASVS 5.0
V6 - Authentication Anti-spoofing controls
MITRE ATT&CK
1 technique across 1 tactic: Defense Evasion The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Exploitation Conditions | The target must be a WordPress site running the Captcha by BestWebSoft plugin at version 5.2.8 or earlier, with the plugin active on at least one public-facing form (login, comment, registration, or password reset) for the bypass to have meaningful effect. Per the CVSS vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N), exploitation is remote, low-complexity, unauthenticated, and requires no user interaction against default configurations where the plugin protects a form. The practical limit on impact is that only integrity is affected (I:L): bypassing the captcha does not itself grant access or data - it merely removes the anti-automation control, so real-world damage depends on what the exposed form is protected against and whether other rate-limiting or authentication layers exist. |
| Impact | This is a low-to-moderate priority issue despite being network-exploitable without authentication. The CVSS 3.1 base score of 5.3 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N) reflects an unauthenticated, low-complexity remote vector but with impact limited to integrity only (I:L) and no confidentiality or availability consequence - consistent with CWE-290 (Authentication Bypass by Spoofing), where the captcha control is defeated rather than the host system compromised. No EPSS score, CISA KEV listing, or public POC was provided in the intelligence, so there is no signal of active or probable exploitation; the single Patchstack reference indicates coordinated disclosure rather than observed attacks. The realistic consequence is that the captcha protection on forms (login, comment, registration, password reset) can be bypassed, re-enabling automated abuse such as spam, credential stuffing, and brute-force attempts that the plugin is meant to block - a defense-in-depth weakening rather than a direct breach. In short, this is a genuine but contained weakness: the unauthenticated network vector warrants timely patching on exposed WordPress sites, but the low integrity-only impact and absence of exploitation signals mean it is not an emergency relative to higher-severity, actively-exploited flaws. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker targets a WordPress site running Captcha by BestWebSoft 5.2.8 or earlier and crafts requests to a protected form (such as login or comment submission) that bypass the captcha verification step, submitting without solving the challenge. This re-enables automation against the form, allowing high-volume spam, comment flooding, or brute-force/credential-stuffing attempts that the captcha was intended to stop. No public exploit code was identified at time of analysis, and the low-complexity unauthenticated vector means the attack can be scripted once the bypass technique is understood. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Oct 06, 2026
Captcha bypass in the WordPress plugin Captcha by BestWebSoft (versions 5.2.8 and earlier) lets unauthenticated remote attackers defeat the plugin's anti-automation challenge on any form it protects, including login, registration, comment and password reset, without user interaction. Classified as CWE-290 (authentication bypass by spoofing) and scored CVSS 5.3, the issue degrades only integrity of the protected workflow: bypassing the captcha removes a defense-in-depth control but does not itself grant account access or expose data. No public exploit identified at time of analysis, and real-world severity depends on which forms the plugin guards and whether separate rate-limiting, MFA or WAF controls are active.
RemediationAI
No vendor-released patch or fixed version is identified in the available data, so the primary action is to consult the Patchstack advisory (https://patchstack.com/database/wordpress/plugin/captcha-bws/vulnerability/wordpress-captcha-by-bestwebsoft-plugin-5-2-8-bypass-vulnerability-vulnerability?_s_id=cve) and the plugin's WordPress.org page for a patched release above 5.2.8, then upgrade immediately when it lands. Until then, if the plugin is not business-critical, deactivate and delete it - the trade-off is losing captcha protection entirely, which should be offset by replacing it with an actively maintained captcha/anti-automation plugin on the same forms. Compensating controls: apply rate limiting and IP/ASN throttling at the reverse proxy or WAF for /wp-login.php, /wp-comments-post.php, registration and lost-password endpoints (side effect: legitimate users behind shared NAT may be throttled), enable multi-factor authentication and strong password enforcement for all accounts including administrators (does not stop comment spam or registration abuse), tighten comment and registration settings to require moderation or approval, and monitor logs for credential-stuffing or automated comment patterns that would otherwise have been blocked by the captcha. Note that the plugin's own integrity impact is rated low (I:L), so these compensating layers are the difference between a nuisance and an account-takeover or spam-abuse chain.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in euvd
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
The affected component is a WordPress plugin, Captcha by BestWebSoft, which injects a human-verification challenge into WordPress forms and validates the submitted challenge response server-side before allowing the underlying action to proceed. The assigned CWE-290 (Authentication Bypass by Spoofing) points to a root cause in that validation path: the plugin can be induced to accept a request as if the challenge were satisfied, so the anti-automation gate is effectively skipped. The CPE string cpe:2.3:a:bestwebsoft:captcha_by_bestwebsoft:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* treats all released versions as in scope, and ENISA's advisory record narrows the practical affected range to builds up to and including 5.2.8. The independent assessment vector (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N) confirms the attack is network-reachable, low complexity, unauthenticated and requires no victim interaction, with scope unchanged and impact confined to low integrity - meaning the captcha control is nullified rather than any credential, token or data being disclosed, matching the nature of a bypass-by-spoofing weakness in a self-contained WordPress plugin.
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
Remote unauthenticated bypass of a captcha control (PR:N, AV:N, AC:L); impact is integrity-only (I:L) since it defeats a protection mechanism without exposing data or affecting availability.
Primary rating from Vendor (Patchstack).
CVSS VectorVendor: Patchstack
DescriptionCVE.org
Unauthenticated Bypass Vulnerability in Captcha by BestWebSoft <= 5.2.8 versions.
Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Authentication bypass attacks exploit flaws in the verification mechanisms that control access to systems and applications.
EUVD-2026-93279
GHSA-jwhg-573g-fxv2
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
Exploit-DB