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CVE-2026-97637.

Source-reported disclosure and enrichment record.

SEVERITY / CVSSCRITICAL / 9.8CVSS 3.1 · security@wordfence.com
EXPLOITATION STATUSNot listed in the cached KEV catalogThis does not establish absence of exploitation.
RECORD STATUSDeferredModified Oct 03, 2026

Disclosure summary

The JSON API Auth plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Authentication Bypass via Cached Session Cookie Disclosure in all versions up to, and including, 3.1.2. The vulnerability exists because the required PI-Media/json-api parent plugin caches controller dispatch results in transients keyed solely by URI and query string, ignoring HTTP method and POST body; this causes the `generate_auth_cookie()` endpoint — which embeds a live WordPress `logged_in` cookie produced by `wp_generate_auth_cookie()` directly in its JSON response body — to serve that cached authenticated response to any subsequent unauthenticated GET request to the same URI. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to retrieve a valid Administrator `logged_in` session cookie from the cached response and use it to fully authenticate as the site Administrator, including via the same plugin's `get_currentuserinfo` endpoint and any cookie-authenticated controller action. Exploitation requires the PI-Media/json-api parent plugin to be installed and active with the Auth controller enabled, and a legitimate Administrator must have POSTed to `/api/auth/generate_auth_cookie/` within the preceding 24-hour cache TTL; the nominal HTTPS enforcement gate present in `Auth.php` is trivially bypassed by supplying `insecure=cool` as a request parameter.

Source-reported weakness categories

CWE-287

Source-specific records & product guidance

Sources retain their own attribution and scoring. Follow the original record to confirm affected versions, fixed releases, and configuration conditions.

NIST National Vulnerability Database · NVD-CVE-2026-97637

Open original source · Updated Oct 03, 2026

Only CPE matches marked vulnerable=true are indexed. AND/OR platform conditions must be checked in the original NVD record.

Original records & references

PUBLISHED 2026-10-02T04:17:05-04:00
MODIFIED 2026-10-03T12:16:49-04:00
INGESTED 2026-10-06T11:45:30-04:00