CVE-2026-118084 in Hotel Booking Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 10/29/2026
Subscriber Insecure Direct Object References (IDOR) in Hotel Booking <= 3.8 versions.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/29/2026
The vulnerability identified as an insecure direct object reference within the Hotel Booking plugin for WordPress, affecting versions up to and including 3.8, represents a critical flaw in access control mechanisms that allows unauthorized users to manipulate or view sensitive data belonging to other subscribers. This type of vulnerability stems from the application's failure to properly validate whether the authenticated user has permission to access specific resources based on their identity rather than relying solely on predictable identifiers passed through HTTP requests. In this context, the plugin likely utilizes sequential numeric IDs or easily guessable strings to reference booking records, customer details, or reservation statuses in its database queries without implementing adequate authorization checks at the server side.
From a technical perspective, the flaw resides in how the backend processes user-supplied input when retrieving hotel booking information. When an authenticated subscriber interacts with the plugin's interface, such as viewing their own bookings or modifying profile settings, the application constructs SQL queries using direct object references provided by the client-side request parameters. Because these identifiers are not randomized and lack sufficient entropy, attackers can systematically iterate through sequential values to access records belonging to other users. This bypasses any intended isolation between user accounts, effectively turning a standard authentication mechanism into an open door for data exfiltration or manipulation if write operations are also susceptible to similar flaws.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe, particularly given the sensitive nature of hotel booking data which often includes personally identifiable information such as full names, email addresses, phone numbers, and potentially payment details depending on how the plugin integrates with external gateways. An attacker exploiting this insecure direct object reference can enumerate valid user IDs to harvest a comprehensive database of customer profiles. This not only violates privacy regulations like GDPR or CCPA but also facilitates further attacks such as targeted phishing campaigns, credential stuffing, or social engineering efforts where attackers leverage real booking details to appear legitimate and trustworthy to victims.
This vulnerability aligns closely with CWE-639, which categorizes issues related to authorization bypasses through direct object references. It is also mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK framework under techniques such as T1078 Valid Accounts, where attackers use existing credentials to access resources they should not have permission to view or modify. The exploitation typically falls under the initial access and collection phases of an attack lifecycle, allowing adversaries to gather intelligence on potential targets before launching more sophisticated intrusions against the organization hosting the WordPress site.
Mitigation strategies must focus on implementing robust authorization checks that verify user ownership of every resource accessed via direct object references. Developers should replace sequential IDs with non-guessable unique identifiers such as UUIDs or cryptographically secure random strings to prevent enumeration attacks. Furthermore, server-side validation is essential; each request accessing a booking record must explicitly check if the currently authenticated user ID matches the owner ID stored in the database before returning any data. Upgrading to version 3.9 or later of the Hotel Booking plugin resolves this issue as it includes patches for these access control deficiencies. Until an upgrade can be performed, administrators should consider restricting public access to affected endpoints via web application firewall rules that monitor for suspicious patterns of sequential ID requests and limit rate limits on booking-related API calls.