What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities
CVE-2026-3835: Prevent Direct Access – Protect WordPress Files <= 2.8.8.8 - Unauthenticated Protected File Access
- Severity: medium (CVSS 5.3 v3.1)
- Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
- EPSS: 0.5% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
- Public exploit or detection template: none known
- Published: 2026-08-13 · updated 2026-08-14
- Weakness: CWE-285
Description
The Prevent Direct Access – Protect WordPress Files plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized access of protected files due to insufficient token validation in the `get_advance_file_by_url()` method in all versions up to, and including, 2.8.8.8 The method uses a SQL `LIKE` operator for token lookup without escaping wildcard characters via `$wpdb->esc_like()`. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to bypass the private token requirement by supplying SQL wildcard characters (such as `%`) as the token value, matching any record in the plugin's file table and downloading any protected file.
Affected products
- buildwps Prevent Direct Access – Protect WordPress Files: through 2.8.8.8
References
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/prevent-direct-access/tags/2.8.8.4/includes/repository.php#L221
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/prevent-direct-access/trunk/download.php#L377
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/prevent-direct-access/trunk/includes/repository.php#L221
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3637499/prevent-direct-access/trunk/includes/repository.php
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?old_path=%2Fprevent-direct-access/tags/2.8.8.8&new_path=%2Fprevent-direct-access/tags/2.8.8.9
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?reponame=&new=3637502%40prevent-direct-access%2Ftags%2F2.8.8.9&old=3524320%40prevent-direct-access%2Ftags%2F2.8.8.8
- https://wordpress.org/plugins/prevent-direct-access/
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/c39d16f1-ce80-402c-8a36-f9070dc5f9c9?source=cve
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