WordPress Core <= 7.0.3 — Authenticated (Author+) Remote Code Execution via Malicious File Upload
CVE-2026-65640Published · Updated Action summary
Affected: ≤7.0.3Update to 4.7.35 or 4.8.30 or 4.9.31 or 5.0.27 or 5.1.24 or 5.2.26 or 5.3.23 or 5.4.21 or 5.5.20 or 5.6.19 or 5.7.17 or 5.8.15 or 5.9.16 or 6.0.14 or 6.1.12 or 6.2.11 or 6.3.10 or 6.4.10 or 6.5.10 or 6.6.7 or 6.7.7 or 6.8.8 or 6.9.7 or 7.0.4 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-2026-65640
- Product
- WordPress wordpress
- Affected
- ≤7.0.3
- Fixed in
- 4.7.35, 4.8.30, 4.9.31, 5.0.27, 5.1.24, 5.2.26, 5.3.23, 5.4.21, 5.5.20, 5.6.19, 5.7.17, 5.8.15, 5.9.16, 6.0.14, 6.1.12, 6.2.11, 6.3.10, 6.4.10, 6.5.10, 6.6.7, 6.7.7, 6.8.8, 6.9.7, 7.0.4
- Weakness
- CWE-434 Arbitrary File Upload
- Required access
- Low-privilege account (e.g. subscriber)
- Published
- · updated
- Credit
- pwn.ai Team
- Source
- Wordfence Intelligence
- Affected≤ 7.0.3
- Patched in4.7.35 / 4.8.30 / 4.9.31 / 5.0.27 / 5.1.24 / 5.2.26 / 5.3.23 / 5.4.21 / 5.5.20 / 5.6.19 / 5.7.17 / 5.8.15 / 5.9.16 / 6.0.14 / 6.1.12 / 6.2.11 / 6.3.10 / 6.4.10 / 6.5.10 / 6.6.7 / 6.7.7 / 6.8.8 / 6.9.7 / 7.0.4
Update to 4.7.35 / 4.8.30 / 4.9.31 / 5.0.27 / 5.1.24 / 5.2.26 / 5.3.23 / 5.4.21 / 5.5.20 / 5.6.19 / 5.7.17 / 5.8.15 / 5.9.16 / 6.0.14 / 6.1.12 / 6.2.11 / 6.3.10 / 6.4.10 / 6.5.10 / 6.6.7 / 6.7.7 / 6.8.8 / 6.9.7 / 7.0.4 or newer.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HWhat does this vector mean?
AV:NAttack vector- Network
AC:LAttack complexity- Low
PR:LPrivileges required- Low
UI:NUser interaction- None
S:UScope- Unchanged
C:HConfidentiality- High
I:HIntegrity- High
A:HAvailability- High
WordPress Core is vulnerable to Remote Code Execution in multiple release branches, including versions 4.7.0 through 7.0.3. This is due to insufficient validation in the WP_Image_Editor_Imagick::load() image-processing path before passing uploaded files or streams to Imagick, which can interpret attacker-supplied image-like files as PostScript-family or compressed delegate formats based on magic bytes, format specifiers, or decompressed content rather than the WordPress-accepted extension.
This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Author-level access and above, to upload a crafted file that is processed during attachment metadata generation and may trigger unsafe ImageMagick/Ghostscript behavior, resulting in remote code execution on sites using Imagick and Ghostscript. Unauthenticated exploitation is deployment-dependent and requires an additional public-upload plugin or theme path that sends attacker-supplied files through WordPress image metadata generation.
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: 4.7.35, 4.8.30, 4.9.31, 5.0.27, 5.1.24, 5.2.26, 5.3.23, 5.4.21, 5.5.20, 5.6.19, 5.7.17, 5.8.15, 5.9.16, 6.0.14, 6.1.12, 6.2.11, 6.3.10, 6.4.10, 6.5.10, 6.6.7, 6.7.7, 6.8.8, 6.9.7, 7.0.4
- 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 high, CVSS 8.8
Record last updated
Sources & licenses
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.