Newfold Bluehost Plugin on WordPress wp-module-data authenticate improper authentication

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability identified as critical has been detected in Newfold Bluehost Plugin, Crazy Domains Plugin, Hostgator Plugin and Web Plugin. The affected element is the function Authenticate of the component wp-module-data. The manipulation leads to improper authentication. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2026-80099. The attack is possible to be carried out remotely. No exploit exists.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Newfold Bluehost Plugin, Crazy Domains Plugin, Hostgator Plugin and Web Plugin (affected version not known). This issue affects the function authenticate of the component wp-module-data. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a improper authentication vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-287. When an actor claims to have a given identity, the product does not prove or insufficiently proves that the claim is correct. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

Several Newfold plugins are vulnerable to Authentication Bypass. The vulnerability exists because the plugins bundle the wp-module-data module. In the module, the `authenticate()` method — registered on the `rest_authentication_errors` filter and therefore evaluated for every unauthenticated REST API request — performs an HMAC-style Bearer token comparison that degenerates when `HiiveConnection::get_auth_token()` returns `false`: PHP coerces `strrev(false)` to `strrev('')`, collapsing the secret salt to the publicly known constant `hash('sha256', '') = e3b0c44...`, while all remaining hash inputs (HTTP method, request URL, raw request body, and the `X-Timestamp` header) remain fully attacker-controlled. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to compute a valid Bearer token entirely offline, pass the token equality check, and have `wp_set_current_user()` invoked against the first administrator returned by `get_users(['role' => 'administrator'])`, granting full administrator-level access and enabling arbitrary REST API operations such as creating new administrator accounts and achieving complete site takeover. Vulnerable versions are WP Plugin Crazy Domains (<= 2.5.2), WP Plugin Web (<= 2.3.4), WP Plugin Hostgator (<= 3.1.0), WP Plugin Bluehost (<= 4.17.1). The affected module is vulnerable in versions up to, and including, 2.9.4.

It is possible to read the advisory at wordfence.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-80099 since 08/25/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. No form of authentication is needed for a successful exploitation. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 09/09/2026).

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

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Productinfo

Type

• WordPress Plugin

Vendor

• Newfold

Name

• Bluehost Plugin
• Crazy Domains Plugin
• Hostgator Plugin
• Web Plugin

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