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CVE-2026-97637CRITICAL · CVSS 9.8

CVE-2026-97637

What's the vulnerability?

The JSON API Auth plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Authentication Bypass via Cached Session Cookie Disclosure in all versions up to, and including, 3.1.2. The vulnerability exists because the required PI-Media/json-api parent plugin caches controller dispatch results in transients keyed solely by URI and query string, ignoring HTTP method and POST body; this causes the `generate_auth_cookie()` endpoint — which embeds a live WordPress `logged_in` cookie produced by `wp_generate_auth_cookie()` directly in its JSON response body — to serve that cached authenticated response to any subsequent unauthenticated GET request to the same URI. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to retrieve a valid Administrator `logged_in` session cookie from the cached response and use it to fully authenticate as the site Administrator, including via the same plugin's `get_currentuserinfo` endpoint and any cookie-authenticated controller action. Exploitation requires the PI-Media/json-api parent plugin to be installed and active with the Auth controller enabled, and a legitimate Administrator must have POSTed to `/api/auth/generate_auth_cookie/` within the preceding 24-hour cache TTL; the nominal HTTPS enforcement gate present in `Auth.php` is trivially bypassed by supplying `insecure=cool` as a request parameter.

R4IM analyst take

Business impact & how R4IM helps

This advisory is on our active-exploitation watchlist. Attackers are using it for initial access, privilege escalation or lateral movement in real-world intrusions. R4IM's offensive security and SOC teams already have detections, exploit replicas and remediation playbooks for this issue.

Validate your exposure

Targeted vulnerability assessment to confirm which of your assets are actually exploitable — not just theoretically affected.

Prove it with a pentest

Our pentesters chain this CVE into realistic attack paths so you see business impact, not just a scan finding.

Web app security testing

If the affected product is internet-facing, our AppSec team will harden it against this and related OWASP-class issues.

24/7 SOC & detection

Continuous monitoring with custom detections for this CVE deployed across your endpoints, identity and cloud.

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Recommended remediation

  1. Inventory all assets running the affected vendor and product, including shadow IT and third-party hosted instances.
  2. Apply the vendor patch or mitigation referenced in the advisories below. Where no patch exists, isolate the asset or restrict network exposure.
  3. Hunt for indicators of prior compromise — exploitation of this class of bug often predates public disclosure.
  4. Deploy detections for the exploit primitives (network signature, EDR rule, WAF rule) and re-test after remediation.

Need help executing these steps? Our team typically completes validation and remediation within a single patch cycle. Request remediation support →

Vendor & research references