WordPress plugin

Secure File Manager < 2.8.2 — Remote Code Execution

CVE-2020-35235Published Nov 23, 2020 · Updated Nov 13, 2026

Affected: <2.8.2Update to 2.8.2 or newer

All remediation steps

Watch plugin

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-94 Improper Control of Generation of Code

Required access

Unknown

Exploit prediction (EPSS)

No score

CISA KEV

Not listed

On this page7

Am I affected?

Secure File Manager secure-file-manager

Affected< 2.8.2
Patched in2.8.2

You are affected if you run < 2.8.2. Version 2.8.2 and later are not affected by this issue.

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

What to do

Update to version 2.8.2, or a newer patched version
Rotate administrator passwords and application secrets if the site ran a vulnerable version while publicly reachable.
Watch Secure File Manager to get an email when the next vulnerability is published.

Advisory

Source description from Wordfence Intelligence, credited to Jerome Bruandet.

vendor/elfinder/php/connector.minimal.php in the secure-file-manager plugin through 2.5 for WordPress loads elFinder code without proper access control. Thus, any authenticated user can run the elFinder upload command to achieve remote code execution. NOTE: This vulnerability only affects products that are no longer supported by the maintainer.

Exploits & references

Proof-of-concept & detection

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

Advisories & patches

Advisorywordfence.com

Timeline

Nov 23, 2020
CVE published
Severity high, CVSS 8.8
Nov 13, 2026
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.

How we use these sources