CVE-2026-97269 in WPFunnels Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 10/01/2026
Unauthenticated Insecure Direct Object References (IDOR) in WPFunnels <= 3.13.1 versions.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/01/2026
The vulnerability identified as an Unauthenticated Insecure Direct Object Reference within the WPFunnels plugin, affecting versions up to and including 3.13.1, represents a critical failure in access control mechanisms that allows attackers to manipulate object identifiers on the server side without requiring valid authentication credentials. This flaw stems from the application's reliance on client-supplied input, typically passed via URL parameters or POST data, to determine which database records are accessed and returned to the user. In secure software design, every request for a specific resource should be validated against an authorization policy that confirms the requesting entity has permission to access that specific object. However, in this instance, the plugin fails to perform any such verification before processing requests related to funnel configurations or associated data structures. This absence of server-side validation means that by simply altering numerical identifiers or unique keys within HTTP requests, a remote attacker can traverse through the application's database and retrieve sensitive information belonging to other users or administrative accounts.
From a technical perspective, this vulnerability aligns with CWE-639, which classifies Insecure Direct Object References as a category of access control errors where an implementation exposes a reference to an internal object such as a file, directory, or database key without proper authorization checks. The operational impact is severe because it enables unauthenticated data exfiltration. An attacker can systematically enumerate these identifiers to harvest confidential business intelligence stored within the funnels, including customer lists, payment details, marketing strategies, and proprietary sales processes. Since no authentication token or session cookie is required to exploit this flaw, the barrier to entry for malicious actors is virtually non-existent. This significantly increases the attack surface, allowing automated scanning tools to rapidly identify vulnerable instances across the internet and extract data in bulk without triggering typical intrusion detection systems that monitor for suspicious login attempts or privilege escalation behaviors.
The exploitation of this vulnerability maps directly to several techniques within the MITRE ATT&CK framework, specifically T1078 Valid Accounts if combined with other flaws, but more accurately T1539 Steal Web Session Cookie if session data is exposed, and primarily T1213 Data from Information Repositories. The attacker leverages these methods to access stored information that they are not authorized to view. Furthermore, the lack of authentication requirement places this under the broader category of broken access control, which remains one of the most prevalent risks in web applications according to OWASP Top 10 classifications. The ability to read arbitrary objects can also serve as a stepping stone for further attacks, such as identifying valid user IDs for subsequent brute-force attempts or discovering configuration files that might contain database credentials, thereby escalating from information disclosure to full system compromise.
Mitigation strategies must prioritize immediate patching and robust input validation. Administrators running WPFunnels versions 3.13.1 or lower should upgrade to the latest patched version immediately upon release by the vendor, as this is the most effective remediation path that addresses the root cause in the codebase. In scenarios where an update cannot be applied instantly due to compatibility concerns with other plugins or custom themes, temporary mitigations include implementing a Web Application Firewall rule set designed to detect and block anomalous patterns of sequential ID enumeration requests. Additionally, developers should enforce strict server-side authorization checks for all endpoints that handle object references, ensuring that the identity of the requester is verified against an access control list before any data retrieval occurs. Regular security audits focusing on API endpoint logic and database query construction are essential to prevent similar vulnerabilities from being introduced in future updates or custom code extensions.