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WordPress Core < 5.8.3 — SQL Injection via WP_Query

CVE-2022-21661Published · Updated

Action summary

Affected: <5.8.3Update to 3.7.37 or 3.8.37 or 3.9.35 or 4.0.34 or 4.1.34 or 4.2.31 or 4.3.27 or 4.4.26 or 4.5.25 or 4.6.22 or 4.7.22 or 4.8.18 or 4.9.19 or 5.0.15 or 5.1.12 or 5.2.14 or 5.3.11 or 5.4.9 or 5.5.8 or 5.6.7 or 5.7.5 or 5.8.3 or newer

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

All remediation steps
Severity
High8.0
CVSS
8.0
CVSS 3.1 · CNA (Wordfence)
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
What does this vector mean?
AV:N Attack vector
Network
AC:H Attack complexity
High
PR:H Privileges required
High
UI:N User interaction
None
S:C Scope
Changed
C:H Confidentiality
High
I:H Integrity
High
A:H Availability
High
Weakness
CWE-89 SQL Injection
Required access
Unknown
Exploit prediction (EPSS)
No score
CISA KEV
Not listed

Am I affected?

WordPress wordpress

  1. Affected< 5.8.3
  2. Patched in3.7.37 / 3.8.37 / 3.9.35 / 4.0.34 / 4.1.34 / 4.2.31 / 4.3.27 / 4.4.26 / 4.5.25 / 4.6.22 / 4.7.22 / 4.8.18 / 4.9.19 / 5.0.15 / 5.1.12 / 5.2.14 / 5.3.11 / 5.4.9 / 5.5.8 / 5.6.7 / 5.7.5 / 5.8.3

Update to 3.7.37 / 3.8.37 / 3.9.35 / 4.0.34 / 4.1.34 / 4.2.31 / 4.3.27 / 4.4.26 / 4.5.25 / 4.6.22 / 4.7.22 / 4.8.18 / 4.9.19 / 5.0.15 / 5.1.12 / 5.2.14 / 5.3.11 / 5.4.9 / 5.5.8 / 5.6.7 / 5.7.5 / 5.8.3 or newer.

You are affected if you run < 5.8.3. Version 3.7.37, 3.8.37, 3.9.35, 4.0.34, 4.1.34, 4.2.31, 4.3.27, 4.4.26, 4.5.25, 4.6.22, 4.7.22, 4.8.18, 4.9.19, 5.0.15, 5.1.12, 5.2.14, 5.3.11, 5.4.9, 5.5.8, 5.6.7, 5.7.5, 5.8.3 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: 3.7.37, 3.8.37, 3.9.35, 4.0.34, 4.1.34, 4.2.31, 4.3.27, 4.4.26, 4.5.25, 4.6.22, 4.7.22, 4.8.18, 4.9.19, 5.0.15, 5.1.12, 5.2.14, 5.3.11, 5.4.9, 5.5.8, 5.6.7, 5.7.5, 5.8.3
  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 ngocnb from GiaoHangTietKiem JSC, khuyenn from GiaoHangTietKiem JSC.

WordPress is a free and open-source content management system written in PHP and paired with a MariaDB database. Due to improper sanitization in WP_Query, there can be cases where SQL injection is possible through plugins or themes that use it in a certain way. This has been patched in WordPress version 5.8.3. Older affected versions are also fixed via security release, that go back till 3.7.37. We strongly recommend that you keep auto-updates enabled. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

Exploits & references

Proof-of-concept & detection

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

Advisories & patches

Same weakness (SQL Injection)

All SQL Injection
Other SQL Injection 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 RenameCVE-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 HeaderCVE-2026-120688

Timeline

  1. CVE published

    Severity high, CVSS 8.0

  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.

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