WP-BusinessDirectory <= 4.0.1 — Unauthenticated Arbitrary File Deletion via Path Traversal via '_filename' Parameter

Am I affected?

• Check your version: in wp-admin go to Plugins → Installed Plugins and read the version under WP-BusinessDirectory – Business directory plugin for WordPress.
• 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 4.0.2, or a newer patched version
2. Rotate administrator passwords and application secrets if the site ran a vulnerable version while publicly reachable.
3. Watch WP-BusinessDirectory – Business directory plugin for WordPress to get an email when the next vulnerability is published.

Advisory

Source description from Wordfence Intelligence, credited to Nabil Irawan.

The WP-BusinessDirectory plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Unauthenticated Arbitrary File Deletion in versions up to and including 4.0.1. This is due to insufficient path validation in the remove() method of the JBusinessDirectoryControllerUpload class. The task=upload.remove endpoint is accessible without authentication via the plugin's frontend routing system. The _filename parameter is accepted with RAW filter (no sanitization), and the helper function makePathFile() only normalizes directory separator characters without stripping path traversal sequences (../). When combined with the _path_type=2 parameter, which sets the base directory to the plugin's site folder, an attacker can supply a _filename value containing ../ sequences to traverse outside the plugin directory and call PHP's unlink() on arbitrary files — including wp-config.php, wp-config-backup.php, or other critical server files accessible to the web server process. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to delete arbitrary files on the server.

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

Timeline

1. Jun 30, 2026

   CVE published

   Severity critical, CVSS 9.1

2. Nov 13, 2026

   Record last updated