WordPress Core — All Known Versions - Cleartext Storage of wp_signups.activation_key

Am I affected?

• Check your version: in wp-admin go to Plugins → Installed Plugins and read the version under WordPress.
• No admin access? Run a passive check of your site. It reads public files only.
• No account is needed to exploit this. Treat any exposed site on an affected version as at risk.

What to do

1. No known patch available. Review the vulnerability's details in depth and employ mitigations based on your organization's risk tolerance.
2. Rotate administrator passwords and application secrets if the site ran a vulnerable version while publicly reachable.
3. Watch WordPress to get an email when the next vulnerability is published.

Advisory

Source description from Wordfence Intelligence.

All known versions of WordPress Core store cleartext wp_signups.activation_key values (but stores the analogous wp_users.user_activation_key values as hashes), which might make it easier for remote attackers to hijack unactivated user accounts by leveraging database read access (such as access gained through an unspecified SQL injection vulnerability).

Exploits & references

Proof-of-concept & detection

No public proof-of-concept or detection template is known for this vulnerability.

Advisories & patches

• Advisorywordfence.com

Timeline

1. Oct 10, 2017

   CVE published

   Severity medium, CVSS 5.3

2. Nov 13, 2026

   Record last updated