CVE-2009-2336

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.0 v2.0)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 5.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2009-07-10 · updated 2026-06-16
Weakness: CWE-16

Description

The forgotten mail interface in WordPress and WordPress MU before 2.8.1 exhibits different behavior for a password request depending on whether the user account exists, which allows remote attackers to enumerate valid usernames. NOTE: the vendor reportedly disputes the significance of this issue, indicating that the behavior exists for "user convenience."

Affected products

WordPress: before 2.8.1 — fixed in 2.8.1
Wordpress Mu: before 2.8.1 — fixed in 2.8.1

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: WordPress 2.8.1; Wordpress Mu 2.8.1. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

http://corelabs.coresecurity.com/index.php?action=view&type=advisory&name=WordPress_Privileges_Unchecked
http://securitytracker.com/id?1022528
http://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/9110
http://www.osvdb.org/55714
http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/504795/100/0/threaded
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/35581
http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2009/1833
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-August/msg00597.html
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-August/msg00608.html
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-July/msg00632.html
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-July/msg00676.html
http://corelabs.coresecurity.com/index.php?action=view&type=advisory&name=WordPress_Privileges_Unchecked

Get alerted when CVE-2009-2336 or the next vulnerability affects your stack