CVE-2016-6897
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the wp_ajax_update_plugin function in wp-admin/includes/ajax-actions.php in WordPress…
- Published
- Updated
- Reserved
- Assigned by
- mitre
Description
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the wp_ajax_update_plugin function in wp-admin/includes/ajax-actions.php in WordPress before 4.6 allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of subscribers for /dev/random read operations by leveraging a late call to the check_ajax_referer function, a related issue to CVE-2016-6896.
Public exploit
A reference of the record is tagged as an exploit or proof of concept: anyone can try it against an unpatched system.
- 40288 (opens in a new tab)exploitx_refsource_EXPLOIT-DBx_transferred
Timeline
ID reserved
By mitre
- 5 months later
· 5 months later
Published
- 8 years later
· 8 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.0 | Medium6.5 | CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 28.8% · top 1.8% of all CVEs (8 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 6.5.
Weakness
Affected products
n/a
- affected n/a
References (7)
- 92572 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_BIDx_transferred
- 1036683 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_SECTRACKx_transferred
- 40288 (opens in a new tab)exploitx_refsource_EXPLOIT-DBx_transferred
- [oss-security] 20160820 Path traversal vulnerability in WordPress Core Ajax handlers (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
- https://sumofpwn.nl/advisory/2016/path_traversal_vulnerability_in_wordpress_core_ajax_handlers.html (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://github.com/WordPress/WordPress/commit/8c82515ab62b88fb32d01c9778f0204b296f3568 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- https://wpvulndb.com/vulnerabilities/8606 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2016-6897)Record last updated .