WordPress Plugin Vulnerabilities

WP Hotel Booking < 2.3.2 - Unauthenticated Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity to Payment Bypass via PayPal IPN Handler

Description

The WP Hotel Booking plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity in all versions up to, and including, 2.3.1. This is due to the `web_hook_process_paypal_standard()` IPN handler selecting its PayPal validation endpoint from the attacker-controlled `$_REQUEST['test_ipn']` parameter, force-upgrading any `pending` transaction to `completed` when `test_ipn=1`, and omitting post-verification checks on `receiver_email`, `mc_currency`, and `txn_id` uniqueness after receiving a `VERIFIED` response from PayPal. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to mark arbitrary hotel bookings as fully paid without submitting genuine payment to the merchant — either by routing IPN validation through PayPal's sandbox using a free sandbox account, or by replaying a previously verified IPN from a nominal payment to an attacker-controlled PayPal account. An attacker requires only a free PayPal sandbox account (or any PayPal account) to obtain a `VERIFIED` response; no site credentials or special configuration are needed.

Affects Plugins

Fixed in 2.3.2

References

Classification

Type
CONTENT INJECTION
OWASP top 10
CWE

Miscellaneous

Original Researcher
valent1
Verified
No

Timeline

Publicly Published
2026-07-10 (about 1 month ago)
Added
2026-07-10 (about 1 month ago)
Last Updated
2026-07-11 (about 1 month ago)

Other