Vulnerability Monitor

The vendors, products, and vulnerabilities you care about

CVE-2016-6896

Directory traversal vulnerability in the wp_ajax_update_plugin function in wp-admin/includes/ajax-actions.php in WordPress 4.5.3 allows remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service or read certain text files via a .. (dot dot) in the plugin parameter to wp-admin/admin-ajax.php, as demonstrated by /dev/random read operations that deplete the entropy pool.

Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a HIGH severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.1, indicating it can be exploited remotely over the network with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction requiring only low-level privileges . The vulnerability impacts limited data confidentiality, and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 1 product from wordpress organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

First disclosed in 2017, this vulnerability was reported during a period defined by widespread IoT adoption challenges, mobile security concerns, and the emergence of advanced persistent threat (APT) techniques. Contemporary mitigation strategies focused on secure development practices and third-party component vetting.

Published

2017-01-18T21:59:00.277

Last Modified

2026-05-13T00:24:29.033

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.0: 7.1 (HIGH)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:N/A:P

Access Vector: NETWORK
Access Complexity: LOW
Authentication: SINGLE
Confidentiality Impact: PARTIAL
Integrity Impact: NONE
Availability Impact: PARTIAL

Exploitability Score

8.0

Impact Score

4.9

Weaknesses

Type: Primary
CWE-22

Affected Vendors & Products

Type	Vendor	Product	Version/Range	Vulnerable?
Application	wordpress	wordpress	4.5.3	Yes

References

http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/08/20/1 Mailing List, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1036683 ([email protected])
https://sumofpwn.nl/advisory/2016/path_traversal_vulnerability_in_wordpress_core_ajax_handlers.html Exploit, Technical Description, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://wpvulndb.com/vulnerabilities/8606 ([email protected])
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/40288/ ([email protected])
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/08/20/1 Mailing List, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1036683 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://sumofpwn.nl/advisory/2016/path_traversal_vulnerability_in_wordpress_core_ajax_handlers.html Exploit, Technical Description, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://wpvulndb.com/vulnerabilities/8606 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/40288/ (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For wordpress's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.