CVE-2026-2712: WP-Optimize <= 4.5.0 - Missing Authorization to Authenticated (Subscriber+) Plugin Settings Update and Image Manipulation

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.4 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-04-10 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-863

Description

The WP-Optimize plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized access of functionality due to missing capability checks in the `receive_heartbeat()` function in `includes/class-wp-optimize-heartbeat.php` in all versions up to, and including, 4.5.0. This is due to the Heartbeat handler directly invoking `Updraft_Smush_Manager_Commands` methods without verifying user capabilities, nonce tokens, or the allowed commands whitelist that the normal AJAX handler (`updraft_smush_ajax`) enforces. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to invoke admin-only Smush operations including reading log files (`get_smush_logs`), deleting all backup images (`clean_all_backup_images`), triggering bulk image processing (`process_bulk_smush`), and modifying Smush options (`update_smush_options`).

Affected products

davidanderson WP-Optimize – Cache, Compress images, Minify & Clean database to boost page speed & performance: through 4.5.0

References

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