CVE-2026-97657 Auth bypass in Abandoned Cart Pro for WooCommerce
Unauthenticated attackers can bypass authentication and take over any user account, including administrators, by exploiting weak encryption and missing ownership checks in cart recovery links.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2026-97657?
CVE-2026-97657 is a critical authentication bypass vulnerability in Tyche Softwares Abandoned Cart Pro for WooCommerce, published on 14 Oct 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
The Abandoned Cart Pro for WooCommerce plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Authentication Bypass via Malleable Encryption and Bypassable HMAC in all versions up to, and including, 10.8.0. This is due to the use of MAC-free AES-CTR encryption for cart-recovery link tokens — where the 8-byte CTR nonce is carried inside the ciphertext blob and the encryption key is looked up using the attacker-supplied `user_email` GET parameter — combined with an HMAC nonce check in `wcap_email_track_links()` that is only enforced when the `wcap_nonce` parameter is non-empty, allowing complete bypass by omission, and an insecure direct object reference on the decrypted `abandoned_id` with no ownership verification confirming the cart belongs to the email used for decryption. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers who possess a single legitimate cart-recovery link (obtained from their own reminder email) to recover the keystream, forge a ciphertext that decrypts to any victim's cart ID, and trigger a call to `wp_set_auth_cookie()` for the victim user — achieving full account takeover of any user who has ever abandoned a cart, including administrators. The auto-login feature defaults to enabled and is forced on during plugin upgrades, meaning all affected installations are exploitable without any additional configuration.
Weakness: CWE-639
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-97657?
How do I fix CVE-2026-97657?
No fix has been published for CVE-2026-97657 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Upgrade, and rotate credentials and sessions that may have been exposed. More about Authentication bypass.
Is CVE-2026-97657 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-97657 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Public exploit code: 1 proofs of concept on GitHub.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-j8r3-gcq3-h8jj.