CVE-2016-6896 describes a directory traversal vulnerability in WordPress 4.5.3, specifically within the wp_ajax_update_plugin function. This flaw allows remote authenticated users to exploit a "dot dot" sequence in the plugin parameter to either read certain text files or trigger a denial of service by depleting the entropy pool through operations like reading from /dev/random. With a CVSS score of 7.1 (HIGH), the vulnerability is easily exploitable over the network with low privileges and no user interaction, potentially leading to high availability impact and limited confidentiality compromise. While not listed in CISA's KEV catalog and lacking widespread community discussion or media coverage, public exploit code (EDB-40288) is available, indicating its potential for exploitation.
| Vendor | Product | Version(s) | CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
4.5.3CPE matchmatch criteria | cpe:2.3:a:wordpress:wordpress:4.5.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
CVSS version used by this source: 3.0
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:H
No social media mentions found for this CVE.
The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.0 Reddit, 0.3 Bluesky, 0.1 Mastodon, and 0.2 GitHub mentions.
No media coverage found for this CVE.
The average CVE in this peer group has 0.1 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.
Remediation records are not available for this CVE.