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

WordPress Core < 5.5.2 — Privilege Escalation via XML-RPC

CVE-2020-28036Published · Updated

Action summary

Affected: ≤5.5.1Update to 3.7.35 or 3.8.35 or 3.9.33 or 4.0.32 or 4.1.32 or 4.2.29 or 4.3.25 or 4.4.24 or 4.5.23 or 4.6.20 or 4.7.19 or 4.8.15 or 4.9.16 or 5.0.11 or 5.1.7 or 5.2.8 or 5.3.5 or 5.4.3 or 5.5.2 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-269 Privilege Escalation
Required access
Unknown
Exploit prediction (EPSS)
No score
CISA KEV
Not listed
On this page8

Am I affected?

WordPress wordpress

  1. Affected≤ 5.5.1
  2. Patched in3.7.35 / 3.8.35 / 3.9.33 / 4.0.32 / 4.1.32 / 4.2.29 / 4.3.25 / 4.4.24 / 4.5.23 / 4.6.20 / 4.7.19 / 4.8.15 / 4.9.16 / 5.0.11 / 5.1.7 / 5.2.8 / 5.3.5 / 5.4.3 / 5.5.2

Update to 3.7.35 / 3.8.35 / 3.9.33 / 4.0.32 / 4.1.32 / 4.2.29 / 4.3.25 / 4.4.24 / 4.5.23 / 4.6.20 / 4.7.19 / 4.8.15 / 4.9.16 / 5.0.11 / 5.1.7 / 5.2.8 / 5.3.5 / 5.4.3 / 5.5.2 or newer.

You are affected if you run ≤ 5.5.1. Version 3.7.35, 3.8.35, 3.9.33, 4.0.32, 4.1.32, 4.2.29, 4.3.25, 4.4.24, 4.5.23, 4.6.20, 4.7.19, 4.8.15, 4.9.16, 5.0.11, 5.1.7, 5.2.8, 5.3.5, 5.4.3, 5.5.2 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: 3.7.35, 3.8.35, 3.9.33, 4.0.32, 4.1.32, 4.2.29, 4.3.25, 4.4.24, 4.5.23, 4.6.20, 4.7.19, 4.8.15, 4.9.16, 5.0.11, 5.1.7, 5.2.8, 5.3.5, 5.4.3, 5.5.2
  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 Justin Tran.

wp-includes/class-wp-xmlrpc-server.php in WordPress before 5.5.2 allows attackers to gain privileges by using XML-RPC to comment on a post.

Exploits & references

Proof-of-concept & detection

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

Advisories & patches

Same weakness (Privilege Escalation)

All Privilege Escalation
Other Privilege Escalation vulnerabilities
SeverityVulnerabilityCVEPublished
Medium6.4Authenticated (Contributor+) DOM-Based Stored Cross-Site Scripting via 'data-text-sec', 'data-title', and 'title' Attributes via Custom HTML Block
Flatsome≤3.20.12Update to 3.20.13
CVE-2026-18742
High7.1Unauthenticated PHP Object Injection to Arbitrary File Deletion via 'comment_content'/'comment_agent' Parameter during Attachment Rename
Optimole – Optimize Images | Convert WebP & AVIF | CDN & Lazy Load | Image Optimization≤4.2.19Update to 4.2.20
CVE-2026-124969
Critical9.8Missing Authorization to Unauthenticated Arbitrary User Password Reset / Account Takeover via Webhook with 'Is the user ID' Field
AutomatorWP Webhooks≤1.4.4Update to 1.4.5
CVE-2026-126173
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

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?