Customer Email Verification for WooCommerce <= 3.3.0 - Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation to 'alg_wc_ev_verify_email' Parameter

Summary

The Customer Email Verification for WooCommerce plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation via the `alg_wc_ev_verify_email` parameter in versions up to, and including, 3.3.0. The vulnerability exists because `alg_wc_ev_generate_user_code()` generates the per-user activation secret using `wp_rand(100)` when the plugin's 'Encoding method' is set to 'hashids', producing only ~101 possible values (~7 bits of entropy); the resulting token is a reversible Hashids encoding with no cryptographic MAC, and the unauthenticated `verify()` handler — hooked to `init` at `PHP_INT_MAX` with no nonce check and no rate limiting — accepts and acts on the attacker-controlled `?alg_wc_ev_verify_email=` GET parameter directly. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to gain authentication as any unverified WordPress account, including administrator-level accounts, by brute-forcing the trivially small activation code space via a forged verification URL. Exploitation requires that the 'Encoding method' setting be changed to 'hashids' (non-default), that the attacker recover or brute-force the Hashids salt (which defaults to an `md5(time())` value set at first initialization), and that the target account's email address remain unverified.

Timeline

1. Oct 16, 2026, 3:38 AM UTCCVE published
2. Oct 16, 2026, 2:50 PM UTCCISA SSVC assessment

   Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total

3. Oct 16, 2026, 3:09 PM UTCRecord last updated

Affected versions

• wpcodefactory Customer Email Verification for WooCommerce

  through 3.3.0

References 6