CVE-2026-120538 PUBLISHED

Easy Digital Downloads <= 3.7.2 - Unauthenticated Authentication Bypass to Administrator Account Takeover via Guest Checkout Email Binding at PayPal Capture

Assigner: Wordfence
Reserved: 02.11.2026 Published: 03.11.2026 Updated: 03.11.2026

The Easy Digital Downloads plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to authentication bypass leading to administrator account takeover in all versions up to, and including, 3.7.2. During a PayPal guest checkout, the email address entered in the guest-checkout field is trusted as proof of identity: edd_get_purchase_form_user() binds the new guest order to an existing WordPress user purely on an email-address match, rewriting the order's user_id to that user's ID. The PayPal capture sink PurchaseUser::maybe_log_in_after_capture() then looked the user up by the order email (get_user_by( 'email', $order->email )) and, when $order->user_id equalled that user's ID (which the email-binding step guarantees), issued an authenticated session with wp_set_auth_cookie(). An unauthenticated attacker who starts a guest checkout using an administrator's email address (where that administrator has no existing EDD customer record) and completes the PayPal purchase flow therefore receives an authenticated session as that administrator — a full account takeover. The same sink is reachable through the standard PayPal checkout and the REST UnbrandedCard and Fastlane flows.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS Score: 8.1

Product Status

Vendor smub
Product Easy Digital Downloads – eCommerce Payments and Subscriptions made easy
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 0 to 3.7.2 (incl.)

Credits

  • Yuto Hyakumoto finder

References

Problem Types

  • CWE-287 Improper Authentication CWE