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Fencer Intel
high 7.2

CVE-2018-14028 in the critical feed json

In WordPress 4.9.7, plugins uploaded via the admin area are not verified as being ZIP files.

published 8y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2018-5958

cvss
7.2
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
15.2%
EPSS 15.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 96%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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.

Patch / fix

Is CVE-2018-14028 in your stack? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

Check with Fencer

Exploit prediction

15.17% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 96% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 7.2 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 6.5 AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-434 Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.