Pre-Publish Checklist <= 1.1.1 — Insecure Direct Object Reference to Arbitrary Post '_ppc_meta_key' Update

Am I affected?

• Check your version: in wp-admin go to Plugins → Installed Plugins and read the version under Pre-Publish Checklist.
• 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

1. Update to version 1.1.2, or a newer patched version
2. Rotate administrator passwords and application secrets if the site ran a vulnerable version while publicly reachable.
3. Watch Pre-Publish Checklist to get an email when the next vulnerability is published.

Advisory

Source description from Wordfence Intelligence, credited to Rafie Muhammad.

The Pre-Publish Checklist plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Insecure Direct Object Reference in versions up to, and including, 1.1.1 via the ppc_meta_box_ajax_add_handler and ppc_meta_box_ajax_delete_handler functions due to missing validation on a user controlled key. This can allow authenticated attackers with contributor-level access and above to modify and delete the '_ppc_meta_key' post meta value for arbitrary posts.

Exploits & references

Proof-of-concept & detection

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

Advisories & patches

• Advisorywordfence.com

Timeline

1. Sep 22, 2023

   CVE published

   Severity medium, CVSS 5.3

2. Nov 13, 2026

   Record last updated