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CVE-2026-16602 – Unauthenticated Sensitive Information Exposure – Passster WordPress Plugin < 4.3.6

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Summary

CVE-2026-16602 is an unauthenticated sensitive information exposure vulnerability (CWE-200) in the Passster – Password Protect Pages and Content WordPress plugin (also known as Content Protector) in all versions before 4.3.6. The plugin fails to validate post status before returning content through an unauthenticated REST endpoint, allowing attackers to disclose non-public post content. It is rated HIGH severity with a CVSS base score of 7.5.

Technical details

  • Root cause: The plugin does not validate post status before returning content through an unauthenticated REST (captcha) endpoint, and lacks proper authorization checks on that response.
  • Trigger conditions: Exploitation is possible when a captcha provider is enabled/configured on the affected site.
  • Attack vector: Network. An attacker sends unauthenticated requests to the REST endpoint without valid credentials or user interaction.
  • Impact: Unauthorized disclosure of non-public post content, including draft, private, and pending posts. Confidentiality is affected; integrity and availability are not.

Affected software

  • Passster – Password Protect Pages and Content (Content Protector) for WordPress: all versions before 4.3.6.

Severity

  • CVSS v3.1 base score: 7.5 (HIGH)
  • Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

Mitigation and recommended actions

  • Immediate: Update the Passster / Content Protector plugin to version 4.3.6 or later.
  • If no patch can be applied: Restrict or disable the affected captcha functionality, and limit unauthenticated access to the WordPress REST API (for example via a WAF rule or reverse-proxy filtering) until the plugin can be upgraded.

How IONIX identifies potentially affected assets

IONIX matches the following signals against data already collected when it crawled the asset; identifying the technology sends no request beyond that crawl.

  • Raw HTTP response body: /wp-content/plugins/content-protector/

References

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