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WatchTowerHQ <= 3.6.16 — Type Juggling to Authentication Bypass in check_ota

CVE-2023-25701Published · Updated

Action summary

Affected: ≤3.6.16Update to 3.6.17 or newer

All remediation steps
Watch plugin
Severity
Critical9.8
CVSS
9.8
CVSS 3.1 · CNA (Wordfence)
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
What does this vector mean?
AV:N Attack vector
Network
AC:L Attack complexity
Low
PR:N Privileges required
None
UI:N User interaction
None
S:U Scope
Unchanged
C:H Confidentiality
High
I:H Integrity
High
A:H Availability
High
Weakness
CWE-697 Incorrect Comparison
Required access
No account needed
Exploit prediction (EPSS)
No score
CISA KEV
Not listed
On this page8

Am I affected?

WatchTowerHQ watchtowerhq

  1. Affected≤ 3.6.16
  2. Patched in3.6.17

Update to 3.6.17 or newer.

You are affected if you run ≤ 3.6.16. Version 3.6.17 and later are not affected by this issue.

  • Check your version: in wp-admin go to Plugins → Installed Plugins and read the version under WatchTowerHQ.
  • 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. Update to version 3.6.17, or a newer patched version
  2. Rotate administrator passwords and application secrets if the site ran a vulnerable version while publicly reachable.
  3. Watch WatchTowerHQ to get an email when the next vulnerability is published.

Advisory

Source description from Wordfence Intelligence, credited to Dave Jong.

The WatchTowerHQ plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to a type juggling issue in versions up to, and including, 3.6.16. This is due to an incorrect comparison in the check_ota function between the user-supplied access token and the configured WatchTower access token. This makes it possible for unauthenticated remote attackers to bypass intended authentication restrictions via REST API.

Exploits & references

Proof-of-concept & detection

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

Advisories & patches

More in WatchTowerHQ

All 5
More vulnerabilities in WatchTowerHQ
SeverityVulnerabilityCVEPublished
Medium4.9Authenticated (Administrator+) Arbitrary File Read via 'wht_download_big_object_origin' Parameter
≤3.16.0Update to 3.16.1
CVE-2025-13972
Critical9.8Authentication Bypass to Administrator due to Missing Empty Value Check
≤3.10.1Update to 3.10.4
CVE-2024-9933
High8.6Unauthenticated Arbitrary File Download
≤3.6.15Update to 3.6.16
CVE-2022-44583
Critical9.1Unauthenticated Arbitrary File Deletion
≤3.6.15Update to 3.6.16
CVE-2022-44584

Timeline

  1. CVE published

    Severity critical, CVSS 9.8

  2. 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.

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