Helpfulcrowd Product Reviews: A security weakness
Helpfulcrowd Product Reviews is affected by a security weakness. The vulnerable path is reachable without authentication. The resulting impact depends on how the affected component exposes the vulnerable operation. The published affected range is <= 1.2.9.
- Component
- Helpfulcrowd Product Reviews
- Plugin slug
helpfulcrowd-product-reviews- Affected
- <= 1.2.9
- Safe version
> 1.2.9- Published
- Jun 09, 2026
This CVE was published Jun 09, 2026 and is one of 1 known issue for this plugin.
Update, patch or deactivate.
Update Helpfulcrowd Product Reviews to a release after 1.2.9, or disable and remove it until a fixed version is available.
A safe version is available, so updating to that version or later is the preferred remediation. If an immediate update is not practical, consider a targeted application patch or temporarily restricting the affected functionality.
Deactivate only when warranted by your risk profile, or when advised by your hosting provider in the limited circumstances where the vulnerability cannot otherwise be mitigated. If you’re unsure which action is appropriate, contact Fused or your hosting provider for guidance.
Technical description
The Helpfulcrowd Product Reviews plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Authorization Bypass via PHP Type Juggling in versions up to, and including, 1.2.9. This is due to the `helpfulcrowd_validate_token()` function using a loose comparison operator (`!=`) instead of a strict comparison (`!==`) when validating the `token` parameter, while the corresponding REST route `/wp-json/helpfulcrowd/v1/update-settings` is registered with a `permission_callback` of `__return_true`, making it reachable by unauthenticated users; submitting a JSON boolean `true` as the `token` value causes PHP's loose comparison to evaluate as equal to the non-empty base64-encoded secret string, bypassing the check entirely. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to invoke `helpfulcrowd_settings_endpoint()` and write arbitrary attacker-controlled key-value pairs directly into the `helpfulcrowd_options` WordPress database option via `update_option()` without any sanitization or allowlist filtering, enabling full unauthenticated modification of the plugin's stored configuration.
CVE / CNA vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N