CVE-2017-17091

wp-admin/user-new.php in WordPress before 4.9.1 sets the newbloguser key to a string that can be directly derived from the user ID, which allows remote attackers to bypass intended access restrictions by entering this string.

Published: 2017-12-02 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2017-17091 is rated High Risk (72.9/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 8.20%, 94th percentile). Core evidence: EPSS ranks this CVE among the most likely to be exploited in the near term. EPSS rose +4.77% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Mandatory action: High exploitation likelihood—assess exposure and prioritize remediation.

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2017-17091

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 3.43% 8.20% +4.77%
2 2026-05-24 4.48% 3.43% -1.05%
3 2026-03-04 4.48%

Full EPSS history (41 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2017-17091

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.8 3.0 HIGH
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H 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:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
2.8 5.9 [email protected]
6.5 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:P 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:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
8.0 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2017-17091

OS Trackers for CVE-2017-17091

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2017-17091 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-2017-17091
ubuntu medium CVE-2017-17091 medium 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 16, ignored 2, DNE 1, needed 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2017-17091

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2017-17091

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
wordpress wordpress <= 4.9 cpe:2.3:a:wordpress:wordpress:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2017-17091

cvelogic Threat Intelligence