Limit Login Attempts (Spam Protection) <= 5.3 — IP Address Spoofing to Protection Mechanism Bypass
CVE-2022-4534Published · Updated Action summary
Affected: ≤5.3Update to 5.4 or newer
All remediation steps- Severity
- Medium5.3
- CVSS
- 5.3CVSS 3.1 · CNA (Wordfence)
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:NWhat does this vector mean?
AV:NAttack vector- Network
AC:LAttack complexity- Low
PR:NPrivileges required- None
UI:NUser interaction- None
S:UScope- Unchanged
C:NConfidentiality- None
I:LIntegrity- Low
A:NAvailability- None
- Required access
- No account needed
- Exploit prediction (EPSS)
- No score
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
On this page8
Am I affected?
Limit Login Attempts (Spam Protection) wp-limit-failed-login-attempts
- Affected≤ 5.3
- Patched in5.4
Update to 5.4 or newer.
You are affected if you run ≤ 5.3. Version 5.4 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 (Spam Protection).
- 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 5.4, 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 (Spam Protection) to get an email when the next vulnerability is published.
Advisory
Source description from Wordfence Intelligence, credited to rezaduty.
The Limit Login Attempts (Spam Protection) plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to IP Address Spoofing in versions up to, and including, 5.3. This is due to insufficient restrictions on where the IP Address information is being retrieved for request logging and login restrictions. Attackers can supply the X-Forwarded-For header with with a different IP Address that will be logged and can be used to bypass settings that may have blocked out an IP address or country from logging in.
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 (Spam Protection)
All 5| Severity | Vulnerability | CVE | Published |
|---|---|---|---|
| High7.5 | Unauthenticated SQL Injeciton ≤5.5Update to 5.6 | CVE-2024-54234 | |
| Critical9.8 | Unauthenticated SQL Injection ≤4.9.1Update to 5.1 | CVE-2022-0787 | |
| High8.8 | Cross-Site Request Forgery to Arbitrary Plugin Installation/Activation ≤2.9Update to 3.1 | — | |
| High8.8 | Missing Authorization to Arbitrary Plugin Installation/Activation <2.9Update to 2.9 | CVE-2021-24194 |
- High7.5Unauthenticated SQL Injeciton
≤5.5Update to 5.6
- Critical9.8Unauthenticated SQL Injection
≤4.9.1Update to 5.1
- High8.8Cross-Site Request Forgery to Arbitrary Plugin Installation/Activation
≤2.9Update to 3.1
- High8.8Missing Authorization to Arbitrary Plugin Installation/Activation
<2.9Update to 2.9
Timeline
CVE published
Severity medium, CVSS 5.3
Record last updated
Sources & licenses
Wordfence record- Vulnerability data
- Wordfence Intelligence. Copyright 2012-2026 Defiant Inc. Licensed under the CC BY-SA 4.0.
- CVE® identifiers
- Copyright 1999-2026 The MITRE Corporation. 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.