Limit Login Attempts Reloaded <= 2.17.3 — Login Rate Limiting Bypass
CVE-2020-35590Published · Updated Action summary
Affected: ≤2.17.3Update to 2.17.4 or newer
All remediation steps- Severity
- High7.3
- CVSS
- 7.3CVSS 3.1 · CNA (Wordfence)
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:LWhat does this vector mean?
AV:NAttack vector- Network
AC:LAttack complexity- Low
PR:NPrivileges required- None
UI:NUser interaction- None
S:UScope- Unchanged
C:LConfidentiality- Low
I:LIntegrity- Low
A:LAvailability- Low
- Required access
- No account needed
- Exploit prediction (EPSS)
- No score
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
On this page8
Am I affected?
Limit Login Attempts Security – Brute Force Protection, 2FA, Firewall & Login Security limit-login-attempts-reloaded
- Affected≤ 2.17.3
- Patched in2.17.4
Update to 2.17.4 or newer.
You are affected if you run ≤ 2.17.3. Version 2.17.4 and later are not affected by this issue.
- Check your version: in wp-admin go to Plugins → Installed Plugins and read the version under Limit Login Attempts Security – Brute Force Protection, 2FA, Firewall & Login Security.
- 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
- Update to version 2.17.4, or a newer patched version
- Rotate administrator passwords and application secrets if the site ran a vulnerable version while publicly reachable.
- Watch Limit Login Attempts Security – Brute Force Protection, 2FA, Firewall & Login Security to get an email when the next vulnerability is published.
Advisory
Source description from Wordfence Intelligence, credited to n4nj0.
LimitLoginAttempts.php in the limit-login-attempts-reloaded plugin before 2.17.4 for WordPress allows a bypass of (per IP address) rate limits because the X-Forwarded-For header can be forged. When the plugin is configured to accept an arbitrary header for the client source IP address, a malicious user is not limited to perform a brute force attack, because the client IP header accepts any arbitrary string. When randomizing the header input, the login count does not ever reach the maximum allowed retries.
Exploits & references
Proof-of-concept & detection
No public proof-of-concept or detection template is known for this vulnerability.
Advisories & patches
- Advisorywordfence.com
Related CVEs
More in Limit Login Attempts Security – Brute Force Protection, 2FA, Firewall & Login Security
All 6| Severity | Vulnerability | CVE | Published |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medium5.5 | Authenticated (Administrator+) Server-Side Request Forgery <3.4.2Update to 3.4.2 | CVE-2026-118439 | |
| Medium5.3 | Unauthenticated Username Denylist Bypass <3.3.5Update to 3.3.5 | CVE-2026-18356 | |
| Medium6.4 | Authenticated (Contributor+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Shortcode ≤2.25.26Update to 2.25.27 | CVE-2023-6934 | |
| Medium4.3 | Missing Authorization ≤2.25.25Update to 2.25.26 | CVE-2023-5525 | |
| Medium6.1 | Reflected Cross-Site Scripting ≤2.15.2Update to 2.17.4 | CVE-2020-35589 |
- Medium5.5Authenticated (Administrator+) Server-Side Request Forgery
<3.4.2Update to 3.4.2
- Medium5.3Unauthenticated Username Denylist Bypass
<3.3.5Update to 3.3.5
- Medium6.4Authenticated (Contributor+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Shortcode
≤2.25.26Update to 2.25.27
- Medium4.3Missing Authorization
≤2.25.25Update to 2.25.26
- Medium6.1Reflected Cross-Site Scripting
≤2.15.2Update to 2.17.4
Timeline
CVE published
Severity high, CVSS 7.3
Record last updated
Sources & licenses
Wordfence record- Vulnerability data
- Wordfence Intelligence. [object Object] Licensed under the CC BY-SA 4.0.
- CVE® identifiers
- [object Object]. Used under the CVE Program. CVE® is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation.
- CVSS / CWE
- National Vulnerability Database (NVD), shown unmodified. This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.
- VulnCrest content
- Summary, remediation guidance and page layout © VulnCrest. Not sourced from NVD.