CVE-2026-13144 in WP Travel Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 09/09/2026
The WP Travel WordPress plugin before 12.0.2 does not properly verify that the requester is authorized to modify the targeted booking on one branch of its bank-deposit handler, allowing an unauthenticated attacker who knows the target customer's email address to reset that customer's booking payment to an unpaid state and wipe its stored deposit-reconciliation data.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/09/2026
The vulnerability identified in WP Travel versions prior to 12.0.2 represents a critical failure in access control mechanisms within the plugin’s bank-deposit handling logic. This flaw specifically affects one branch of the code responsible for processing payment status updates and reconciliation data. The core issue stems from an insufficient verification process where the system fails to rigorously validate that the entity initiating the modification request is legitimately authorized to alter the state of a specific booking record. In secure software design, any operation that modifies sensitive financial or transactional data must enforce strict identity and authorization checks against the resource being modified. Here, the absence of such validation allows external actors to bypass intended security boundaries entirely.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability enables unauthenticated attackers to manipulate the payment status of existing bookings without providing valid credentials or session tokens. The attacker requires only knowledge of the target customer's email address, which is often publicly available on booking confirmation pages, invoices, or user profiles depending on site configuration. By exploiting this weakness, the attacker can reset a booked transaction back to an unpaid state and simultaneously wipe stored deposit-reconciliation data. This action effectively erases evidence of payment completion and forces the system into a state where it believes no money has been received for services already rendered or reserved.
The impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple status manipulation. By resetting payments to unpaid, attackers can cause significant financial discrepancies for travel agencies using the plugin. It may lead to double-charging customers if they attempt to pay again, create accounting errors due to missing reconciliation records, and potentially allow fraudulent re-booking by clearing previous reservations without proper authorization checks. This aligns with CWE Category 284 Improper Access Control, specifically reflecting weaknesses in access control validation for resources. The attack vector is classified under ATT&CK technique T1078 Valid Accounts if the email was obtained through prior compromise or social engineering, but since it requires no authentication at all, it primarily falls under improper authorization checks that allow privilege escalation via data manipulation rather than account takeover.
Mitigation strategies must prioritize immediate patching to version 12.0.2 or later where this logic has been corrected. Administrators should ensure that the plugin is updated across all instances in their environment. In cases where updating is not immediately feasible, implementing a Web Application Firewall rule set can help mitigate risk by blocking suspicious requests targeting bank-deposit endpoints with malformed parameters indicative of exploitation attempts. Additionally, enforcing stricter email verification protocols during booking creation and ensuring that sensitive customer data like email addresses are not unnecessarily exposed publicly on the frontend interface reduces the attack surface available to potential adversaries. Regular security audits focusing on authorization checks for all financial transaction handlers within WordPress plugins are recommended to prevent similar access control failures in other components of the application stack.