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Fencer Intel
low 3.5

CVE-2020-4050 json

set-screen-option filter misuse by plugins leading to privilege escalation in WordPress

published 6y ago modified 2mo ago also BIT-wordpress-2020-4050 , BIT-wordpress-multisite-2020-4050 , EUVD-2020-25308 , GHSA-4vpv-fgg2-gcqc

cvss
3.5
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.4%
EPSS 1.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 72%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

In affected versions of WordPress, misuse of the `set-screen-option` filter's return value allows arbitrary user meta fields to be saved. It does require an admin to install a plugin that would misuse the filter. Once installed, it can be leveraged by low privileged users. This has been patched in version 5.4.2, along with all the previously affected versions via a minor release (5.3.4, 5.2.7, 5.1.6, 5.0.10, 4.9.15, 4.8.14, 4.7.18, 4.6.19, 4.5.22, 4.4.23, 4.3.24, 4.2.28, 4.1.31, 4.0.31, 3.9.32, 3.8.34, 3.7.34).

Patch / fix

  • bitnami wordpress 3.7.34, 3.8.34, 3.9.32, 4.0.31, 4.1.31, 4.2.28, 4.3.24, 4.4.23, 4.5.22, 4.6.19, 4.7.18, 4.8.14, 4.9.15, 5.0.10, 5.1.6, 5.2.7, 5.3.4, 5.4.2
  • bitnami wordpress-multisite 3.7.34, 3.8.34, 3.9.32, 4.0.31, 4.1.31, 4.2.28, 4.3.24, 4.4.23, 4.5.22, 4.6.19, 4.7.18, 4.8.14, 4.9.15, 5.0.10, 5.1.6, 5.2.7, 5.3.4, 5.4.2
  • wordpress wordpress 3.7.34, 3.8.34, 3.9.32, 4.0.31, 4.1.31, 4.2.28, 4.3.24, 4.4.23, 4.5.22, 4.6.19, 4.7.18, 4.8.14, 4.9.15, 5.0.10, 5.1.6, 5.2.7, 5.3.4, 5.4.2
  • wordpress Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 5.4.2+dfsg1-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2020-4050

Is CVE-2020-4050 in your dependencies? 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

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2020-4050 updated cvss 3.5

wordpress: set-screen-option filter misuse by plugins leads to privilege escalation

  • Red Hat All currently supported Red Hat products
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

1.41% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 72% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 3.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N
NVD 3.1 3.1 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
NVD 2.0 6.0 AV:N/AC:M/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:P
OSV 3.1 3.1 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
bitnami wordpress
>=3.7.0, <3.7.34
>=3.8.0, <3.8.34
>=3.9.0, <3.9.32
>=4.0.0, <4.0.31
>=4.1.0, <4.1.31
>=4.2.0, <4.2.28
>=4.3.0, <4.3.24
>=4.4.0, <4.4.23
>=4.5.0, <4.5.22
>=4.6.0, <4.6.19
>=4.7.0, <4.7.18
>=4.8.0, <4.8.14
>=4.9.0, <4.9.15
>=5.0.0, <5.0.10
>=5.1.0, <5.1.6
>=5.2.0, <5.2.7
>=5.3.0, <5.3.4
>=5.4.0, <5.4.2
3.7.34
3.8.34
3.9.32
4.0.31
4.1.31
4.2.28
4.3.24
4.4.23
4.5.22
4.6.19
4.7.18
4.8.14
4.9.15
5.0.10
5.1.6
5.2.7
5.3.4
5.4.2
bitnami wordpress-multisite
>=3.7.0, <3.7.34
>=3.8.0, <3.8.34
>=3.9.0, <3.9.32
>=4.0.0, <4.0.31
>=4.1.0, <4.1.31
>=4.2.0, <4.2.28
>=4.3.0, <4.3.24
>=4.4.0, <4.4.23
>=4.5.0, <4.5.22
>=4.6.0, <4.6.19
>=4.7.0, <4.7.18
>=4.8.0, <4.8.14
>=4.9.0, <4.9.15
>=5.0.0, <5.0.10
>=5.1.0, <5.1.6
>=5.2.0, <5.2.7
>=5.3.0, <5.3.4
>=5.4.0, <5.4.2
3.7.34
3.8.34
3.9.32
4.0.31
4.1.31
4.2.28
4.3.24
4.4.23
4.5.22
4.6.19
4.7.18
4.8.14
4.9.15
5.0.10
5.1.6
5.2.7
5.3.4
5.4.2

Affected products

  • WordPress wordpress-develop

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-288 Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel
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.

The maintainers of WordPress/wordpress-develop published their own advisory on GitHub. Reviewed sources take precedence over it.