WordPress Core < 5.8.3 — Super Admin Multi-Site Installation Object Injection
CVE-2022-21663Published · 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 stepsOn this page3
Overview
- Advisory ID
- CVE-2022-21663
- Product
- WordPress wordpress
- Affected
- <5.8.3
- Fixed in
- 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
- Required access
- Unknown
- Published
- · updated
- Credit
- Simon Scannell
- Source
- Wordfence Intelligence
- Affected< 5.8.3
- 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.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HWhat does this vector mean?
AV:NAttack vector- Network
AC:HAttack complexity- High
PR:HPrivileges required- High
UI:NUser interaction- None
S:UScope- Unchanged
C:HConfidentiality- High
I:HIntegrity- High
A:HAvailability- High
WordPress is a free and open-source content management system written in PHP and paired with a MariaDB database. On a multisite, users with Super Admin role can bypass explicit/additional hardening under certain conditions through object injection. 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 issue.
Not sure which version you run? Run a passive check — it reads public files only.
Remediation & mitigations
- 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
- Rotate administrator passwords and application secrets if the site ran a vulnerable version while publicly reachable.
References & provenance
Proof-of-concept & detection
No public proof-of-concept or detection template is known for this vulnerability.
Advisories & patches
- Advisorywordfence.com
Timeline
CVE published
Severity medium, CVSS 6.6
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.