WordPress plugin
Protect WP Admin <= 3.6 — Unauthenticated Plugin Deactivation
CVE-2021-24906Published · Updated Action summary
Affected: ≤3.6Update to 3.7 or newer
All remediation steps- Severity
- High7.5
- CVSS
- 7.5CVSS 3.1 · CNA (Wordfence)
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:NWhat does this vector mean?
AV:NAttack vector- Network
AC:LAttack complexity- Low
PR:NPrivileges required- None
UI:NUser interaction- None
S:UScope- Unchanged
C:NConfidentiality- None
I:HIntegrity- High
A:NAvailability- None
- Weakness
- CWE-863 Incorrect Authorization
- Required access
- No account needed
- Exploit prediction (EPSS)
- No score
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
On this page8
Am I affected?
Protect WP Admin protect-wp-admin
- Affected≤ 3.6
- Patched in3.7
Update to 3.7 or newer.
You are affected if you run ≤ 3.6. Version 3.7 and later are not affected by this issue.
- Check your version: in wp-admin go to Plugins → Installed Plugins and read the version under Protect WP Admin.
- No admin access? Run a passive check of your site. It reads public files only.
- No account is needed to exploit this. Treat any exposed site on an affected version as at risk.
What to do
- Update to version 3.7, or a newer patched version
- Rotate administrator passwords and application secrets if the site ran a vulnerable version while publicly reachable.
- Watch Protect WP Admin to get an email when the next vulnerability is published.
Advisory
Source description from Wordfence Intelligence, credited to Krzysztof Zając.
The Protect WP Admin WordPress plugin before 3.7 does not check for authorisation in the lib/pwa-deactivate.php file, which could allow unauthenticated users to disable the plugin (and therefore the protection offered) via a crafted request
Exploits & references
Proof-of-concept & detection
No public proof-of-concept or detection template is known for this vulnerability.
Advisories & patches
- Advisorywordfence.com
Related CVEs
More in Protect WP Admin
All 4| Severity | Vulnerability | CVE | Published |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medium5.3 | Missing Authorization ≤4.1Update to 4.2 | CVE-2025-64249 | |
| Medium5.3 | Unauthenticated Information Disclosure to Protection Bypass ≤3.8Update to 4.0 | CVE-2023-3139 | |
| Medium6.1 | Cross-Site Scripting ≤3.7Update to 3.8 | — |
- Medium5.3Missing Authorization
≤4.1Update to 4.2
- Medium5.3Unauthenticated Information Disclosure to Protection Bypass
≤3.8Update to 4.0
- Medium6.1Cross-Site Scripting
≤3.7Update to 3.8
Timeline
CVE published
Severity high, CVSS 7.5
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.