What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2018-14028

• Severity: high (CVSS 7.2 v3.0)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 15.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2018-08-10 · updated 2026-06-17
• Weakness: CWE-434

Description

In WordPress 4.9.7, plugins uploaded via the admin area are not verified as being ZIP files. This allows for PHP files to be uploaded. Once a PHP file is uploaded, the plugin extraction fails, but the PHP file remains in a predictable wp-content/uploads location, allowing for an attacker to then execute the file. This represents a security risk in limited scenarios where an attacker (who does have the required capabilities for plugin uploads) cannot simply place arbitrary PHP code into a valid plugin ZIP file and upload that plugin, because a machine's wp-content/plugins directory permissions were set up to block all new plugins.

Affected products

• WordPress: 4.9.7

References

• http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/105060
• https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/44710
• https://github.com/rastating/wordpress-exploit-framework/pull/52
• https://rastating.github.io/unrestricted-file-upload-via-plugin-uploader-in-wordpress/
• http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/105060
• https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/44710
• https://github.com/rastating/wordpress-exploit-framework/pull/52
• https://rastating.github.io/unrestricted-file-upload-via-plugin-uploader-in-wordpress/

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