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WordPress plugin

WPMU DEV Dashboard <= 5.0.0 — Authentication Bypass to Arbitrary Plugin Installation (Remote Code Execution) via Forged WDP_AUTH HMAC on ?wpmudev-hub= Endpoint

CVE-2026-15459Published · Updated

Action summary

Affected: ≤5.0.0Update to 5.0.1 or newer

All remediation steps
Watch plugin
Severity
High8.1
CVSS
8.1
CVSS 3.1 · CNA (Wordfence)
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
What does this vector mean?
AV:N Attack vector
Network
AC:H Attack complexity
High
PR:N Privileges required
None
UI:N User interaction
None
S:U Scope
Unchanged
C:H Confidentiality
High
I:H Integrity
High
A:H Availability
High
Weakness
CWE-287 Improper Authentication
Required access
No account needed
Exploit prediction (EPSS)
No score
CISA KEV
Not listed
On this page8

Am I affected?

WPMU DEV Dashboard wpmudev-updates

  1. Affected≤ 5.0.0
  2. Patched in5.0.1

Update to 5.0.1 or newer.

You are affected if you run ≤ 5.0.0. Version 5.0.1 and later are not affected by this issue.

  • Check your version: in wp-admin go to Plugins → Installed Plugins and read the version under WPMU DEV Dashboard.
  • 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 5.0.1, or a newer patched version
  2. Rotate administrator passwords and application secrets if the site ran a vulnerable version while publicly reachable.
  3. Watch WPMU DEV Dashboard to get an email when the next vulnerability is published.

Advisory

Source description from Wordfence Intelligence, credited to Austin Ginder.

The WPMU DEV Dashboard plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Authentication Bypass in all versions up to, and including, 5.0.0. On sites not yet connected to the WPMU DEV Hub — the default state after installation — the site API key that keys the WDP-AUTH request signature is empty, making the signature verified by validate_hash() trivially forgeable; version 5.0.0 additionally removed the replay check in validate_nonce(), and the remote handler is bound to the public init hook with no capability check. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to invoke privileged Hub actions — including installing and activating a plugin from an attacker-supplied URL (resulting in remote code execution), deleting plugins and themes, upgrading WordPress core, or logging in as an administrator via SSO. Sites connected to a WPMU DEV account, which have a non-empty 64-character API key, are not affected. CVE-2026-16051 is a duplicate of this.

Exploits & references

Proof-of-concept & detection

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

Advisories & patches

More in WPMU DEV Dashboard

All 2
More vulnerabilities in WPMU DEV Dashboard
SeverityVulnerabilityCVEPublished
Critical9.8Authentication Bypass to Administrator via SSO HMAC Canonicalization Confusion
≤5.0.1Update to 5.0.2
CVE-2026-76581

Timeline

  1. CVE published

    Severity high, CVSS 8.1

  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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