CVE-2020-36841
📋 TL;DR
The WooCommerce Smart Coupons plugin for WordPress has an authorization bypass vulnerability that allows unauthenticated attackers to create gift certificates of any value. This could lead to financial loss for store owners as attackers could redeem these certificates for products. All WordPress sites using vulnerable versions of this plugin are affected.
💻 Affected Systems
- WooCommerce Smart Coupons
⚠️ Manual Verification Required
This CVE does not have specific version information in our database, so automatic vulnerability detection cannot determine if your system is affected.
Why? The CVE database entry doesn't specify which versions are vulnerable (no version ranges provided by the vendor/NVD).
🔒 Custom verification scripts are available for registered users. Sign up free to download automated test scripts.
- Review the CVE details at NVD
- Check vendor security advisories for your specific version
- Test if the vulnerability is exploitable in your environment
- Consider updating to the latest version as a precaution
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete financial loss as attackers create unlimited high-value gift certificates and redeem them for all store inventory, potentially bankrupting the business.
Likely Case
Moderate financial loss from attackers creating and redeeming multiple gift certificates before detection, plus reputational damage.
If Mitigated
Minimal impact if detected quickly through monitoring and gift certificate validation controls are in place.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires sending crafted HTTP requests to vulnerable endpoints. No authentication required.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 4.6.1
Vendor Advisory: https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2020/03/coupon-creation-vulnerability-patched-in-woocommerce-smart-coupons/
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Log into WordPress admin panel. 2. Navigate to Plugins → Installed Plugins. 3. Find WooCommerce Smart Coupons. 4. Click 'Update Now' if available. 5. Alternatively, download version 4.6.1+ from WordPress repository and manually update.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Temporary Plugin Deactivation
allDisable the vulnerable plugin until patched
wp plugin deactivate woocommerce-smart-coupons
Web Application Firewall Rule
allBlock requests to vulnerable coupon endpoints
Add WAF rule to block POST requests to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with action parameter containing 'woocommerce_coupon_admin_init'
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict monitoring of gift certificate creation and redemption logs
- Disable gift certificate functionality entirely via plugin settings or code modification
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check WordPress admin → Plugins → Installed Plugins for WooCommerce Smart Coupons versionCheck Version:
wp plugin get woocommerce-smart-coupons --field=versionVerify Fix Applied:
Confirm plugin version is 4.6.1 or higher📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual spike in gift certificate creation
- Gift certificates created from unauthenticated IPs
- Multiple high-value coupons created in short time
Network Indicators:
- POST requests to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with woocommerce_coupon_admin_init action from external IPs
SIEM Query:
source="web_logs" AND uri="/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php" AND method="POST" AND params.action="woocommerce_coupon_admin_init" AND NOT user_agent="WordPress/*"