CVE-2020-8819 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.1) CWE-346 vulnerability in cardgate/woocommerce. 5 public exploit or proof-of-concept references are indexed, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for cardgate/woocommerce — see the affected versions and patch details below.
CardGate Payments plugin for WooCommerce does not validate request origin
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
cardgate/woocommerceReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Packagist packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
An issue was discovered in the CardGate Payments plugin through 3.1.15 for WooCommerce. Lack of origin authentication in the IPN callback processing function in cardgate/cardgate.php allows an attacker to remotely replace critical plugin settings (merchant ID, secret key, etc.) and therefore bypass the payment process (e.g., spoof an order status by manually sending an IPN callback request with a valid signature but without real payment) and/or receive all of the subsequent payments.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | cardgate/woocommerce | all versions | 3.1.16composer require cardgate/woocommerce:^3.1.16 |
Affected Products
cardgate paymentscardgateResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
WordPress Plugin WooCommerce CardGate Payment Gateway 3.1.15 - Payment Process Bypass
by GeekHack · Feb 25, 2020
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for cardgate/woocommerce, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update cardgate/woocommerce to 3.1.16 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-8819 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2020-8819 in your dependencies?
Find it across Packagist, including transitive dependencies.