CVE-2017-14990

Exp

WordPress 4.8.2 stores cleartext wp_signups.activation_key values (but stores the analogous wp_users.user_activation_key values as hashes), which might make it easier for remote attackers to hijack unactivated user accounts by leveraging database read access (such as access gained through an unspecified SQL injection vulnerability).

Published: 2017-10-02 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2017-14990 is rated High Exploit Risk (68.6/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.76%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). EPSS rose +1.37% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2017-14990

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2017-14990

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.40% 1.76% +1.37%
2 2025-12-28 0.24% 0.40% +0.16%
3 2025-12-27 — 0.24% —

Full EPSS history (21 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2017-14990

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.5 3.0 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 2.8 3.6 [email protected]
4.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:S)
A single authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 8.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2017-14990

OS Trackers for CVE-2017-14990

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2017-14990 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (wordpress), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2017-14990
ubuntu low CVE-2017-14990 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (wordpress), 21 status rows across 21 suites (artful, bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial, zesty): not-affected 17, DNE 1, ignored 1, needed 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2017-14990

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2017-14990

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
wordpress wordpress 4.8.2 cpe:2.3:a:wordpress:wordpress:4.8.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2017-14990

URL Tags
http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1039554 Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/38474 Exploit Issue Tracking Third Party Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3997 Third Party Advisory
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