WordPress plugin

PHP Shell (All Versions) — Backdoor

b8cbd521-f2d4-4cf6-a50f-ed42f4d21989Published Oct 17, 2008 · Updated Nov 13, 2026

Affected: all versionsNo patch available

What to do until a fix ships

Watch plugin

Severity

Critical9.8

CVSS

9.8

CVSS 3.1 · CNA (Wordfence)

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

What does this vector mean?

AV:N Attack vector: Network
AC:L Attack complexity: Low
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-94 Improper Control of Generation of Code

Required access

No account needed

Exploit prediction (EPSS)

No score

CISA KEV

Not listed

On this page7

Am I affected?

php-shell php-shell

Affectedall versions
PatchedNo fix yet

You are affected if you run all versions. No fixed version has been released.

Check your version: in wp-admin go to Plugins → Installed Plugins and read the version under php-shell.
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

No known patch available. Please review the vulnerability's details in depth and employ mitigations based on your organization's risk tolerance. It may be best to uninstall the affected software and find a replacement.
Rotate administrator passwords and application secrets if the site ran a vulnerable version while publicly reachable.
Watch php-shell to get an email when the next vulnerability is published.

Advisory

Source description from Wordfence Intelligence.

The PHP Shell plugin for WordPress is used for Remote Code Execution in all versions up to, and including, 1.0. This allows unauthenticated attackers to execute code 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

Timeline

Oct 17, 2008
CVE published
Severity critical, CVSS 9.8
Nov 13, 2026
Record last updated

Sources & licenses

Vulnerability data: Wordfence Intelligence. Copyright 2012-2026 Defiant Inc. Licensed under the CC BY-SA 4.0.
CVSS / CWE: National Vulnerability Database (NVD), shown unmodified. This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.

How we use these sources