CVE-2020-36728
Adning Advertising <= 1.5.5 - Unauthenticated Arbitrary File Deletion via Path Traversal
- 6.5MediumCVSS base score
- 3.1%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 12% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- 1Public exploitsMetasploit, Nuclei and Exploit-DB
Description
The Adning Advertising plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to file deletion via path traversal in versions up to, and including, 1.5.5. This allows unauthenticated attackers to delete arbitrary files which can be used to reset and gain full control of a site.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. The public collections list a Nuclei template for it.
Show the exploits1
Nuclei templates1 template
- WordPress Plugin Adning Advertising < 1.5.6 - Arbitrary File Upload (Nuclei template) (opens in a new tab)
http/cves/2020/CVE-2020-36728.yamlSeverity medium
Modules, templates and exploits as listed by the Metasploit Framework (BSD-3-Clause), ProjectDiscovery's Nuclei templates (MIT) and the Exploit Database (GPLv2), read once a day. Where the data comes from
Timeline
ID reserved
By Wordfence
- 1 day later
· 1 day later
Published
- 3 years later
· 3 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| WordfenceCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | Medium6.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | Critical9.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 3.1% · top 12% of all CVEs (10 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: yes · Technical impact: partial
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 6.5.
Affected products
- affected ≤ 1.5.5
References
4
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/e7506429-7f8a-45b5-b1b0-6fdb39599ee5?source=cve (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- https://blog.nintechnet.com/critical-vulnerability-in-adning-advertising-plugin-actively-exploited-in-the-wild/ (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2020/07/critical-vulnerabilities-patched-in-adning-advertising-plugin/ (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- https://codecanyon.net/item/wp-pro-advertising-system-all-in-one-ad-manager/269693 (opens in a new tab)x_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)
- EUVD EUVD-2020-24170 (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-2020-36728)Record last updated .