VulnCrest
Search
Create account
Report an incident
Radar sectionsDatabase
Check my site
WordPress wordpress core

WordPress Core < 4.9.7 — Authenticated Arbitrary File Deletion

CVE-2018-12895Published · Updated

Action summary

Affected: ≤4.9.6Update to 3.7.27 or 3.8.27 or 3.9.25 or 4.0.24 or 4.1.24 or 4.2.21 or 4.3.17 or 4.4.16 or 4.5.15 or 4.6.12 or 4.7.11 or 4.8.7 or 4.9.7 or newer

Fixed versions are per release branch: update to the fix for the branch you run.

All remediation steps
Watch core
Severity
High8.8
CVSS
8.8
CVSS 3.1 · CNA (Wordfence)
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
What does this vector mean?
AV:N Attack vector
Network
AC:L Attack complexity
Low
PR:L Privileges required
Low
UI:N User interaction
None
S:U Scope
Unchanged
C:H Confidentiality
High
I:H Integrity
High
A:H Availability
High
Weakness
CWE-22 Path Traversal
Required access
Unknown
Exploit prediction (EPSS)
No score
CISA KEV
Not listed
On this page8

Am I affected?

WordPress wordpress

  1. Affected≤ 4.9.6
  2. Patched in3.7.27 / 3.8.27 / 3.9.25 / 4.0.24 / 4.1.24 / 4.2.21 / 4.3.17 / 4.4.16 / 4.5.15 / 4.6.12 / 4.7.11 / 4.8.7 / 4.9.7

Update to 3.7.27 / 3.8.27 / 3.9.25 / 4.0.24 / 4.1.24 / 4.2.21 / 4.3.17 / 4.4.16 / 4.5.15 / 4.6.12 / 4.7.11 / 4.8.7 / 4.9.7 or newer.

You are affected if you run ≤ 4.9.6. Version 3.7.27, 3.8.27, 3.9.25, 4.0.24, 4.1.24, 4.2.21, 4.3.17, 4.4.16, 4.5.15, 4.6.12, 4.7.11, 4.8.7, 4.9.7 and later are not affected by this issue.

  • Check your version: in wp-admin go to Plugins → Installed Plugins and read the version under WordPress.
  • No admin access? Run a passive check of your site. It reads public files only.

What to do

  1. Update to one of the following versions, or a newer patched version: 3.7.27, 3.8.27, 3.9.25, 4.0.24, 4.1.24, 4.2.21, 4.3.17, 4.4.16, 4.5.15, 4.6.12, 4.7.11, 4.8.7, 4.9.7
  2. Rotate administrator passwords and application secrets if the site ran a vulnerable version while publicly reachable.
  3. Watch WordPress to get an email when the next vulnerability is published.

Advisory

Source description from Wordfence Intelligence, credited to Matt Barry, Karim El Ouerghemmi, Slavco Mihajloski.

WordPress through 4.9.6 allows Author users to execute arbitrary code by leveraging directory traversal in the wp-admin/post.php thumb parameter, which is passed to the PHP unlink function and can delete the wp-config.php file. This is related to missing filename validation in the wp-includes/post.php wp_delete_attachment function. The attacker must have capabilities for files and posts that are normally available only to the Author, Editor, and Administrator roles. The attack methodology is to delete wp-config.php and then launch a new installation process to increase the attacker's privileges.

Exploits & references

Proof-of-concept & detection

No public proof-of-concept or detection template is known for this vulnerability.

Advisories & patches

Same weakness (Path Traversal)

All Path Traversal
Other Path Traversal vulnerabilities
SeverityVulnerabilityCVEPublished
High7.2Unauthenticated Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Comment User-Agent Header
EZ SQL Reports Shortcode Widget and DB Backup≤5.25.25Update to 5.26.45
CVE-2026-120688
Critical9.8Unauthenticated Arbitrary File Upload via File Upload via Public Form Submission
Chatterbug Forms – Fast, Flexible WordPress Form Builder≤1.0.2Update to 1.1
CVE-2026-125055
Critical9.8Unauthenticated PHP Object Injection to Remote Code Execution via 'form' Parameter
ELEX WordPress HelpDesk & Customer Ticketing System≤3.3.9Update to 3.4.0
CVE-2026-119077
Medium5.3Unauthenticated Sensitive Information Exposure in 'search' Parameter
Customer Reviews for WooCommerce≤5.127.0Update to 5.128.0
CVE-2026-121518

Timeline

  1. CVE published

    Severity high, CVSS 8.8

  2. Record last updated

Sources & licenses

Wordfence record
Vulnerability data
Wordfence Intelligence. Copyright 2012-2026 Defiant Inc. Licensed under the CC BY-SA 4.0.
CVE® identifiers
Copyright 1999-2026 The MITRE Corporation. Used under the CVE Program. CVE® is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation.
CVSS / CWE
National Vulnerability Database (NVD), shown unmodified. This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.
VulnCrest content
Summary, remediation guidance and page layout © VulnCrest. Not sourced from NVD.

How we use these sources

Search VulnCrest Radar

Jump to

Are you sure?