CVE-2026-2301Post Duplicator <= 3.0.8 - Missing Authorization to Authenticated (Contributor+) Protected Post Meta Insertion via 'customMetaData' Parameter
- 4.3MediumCVSS base score
- 0.24%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 85% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
The Post Duplicator plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized arbitrary protected post meta insertion in all versions up to, and including, 3.0.8. This is due to the `duplicate_post()` function in `includes/api.php` using `$wpdb->insert()` directly to the `wp_postmeta` table instead of WordPress's standard `add_post_meta()` function, which would call `is_protected_meta()` to prevent lower-privileged users from setting protected meta keys (those starting with `_`). This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Contributor-level access and above, to inject arbitrary protected post meta keys such as `_wp_page_template`, `_wp_attached_file`, and other sensitive meta keys on duplicated posts via the `customMetaData` JSON array parameter in the `/wp-json/post-duplicator/v1/duplicate-post` REST API endpoint.
Timeline
ID reserved
By Wordfence
- 15 days later
· 15 days later
Published
- 42 days later
· 42 days 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 | Medium4.3 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N |
| NVDNVD · Deferred | 3.1 | Medium4.3 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.24% · top 85% of all CVEs (12 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 4.3.
Affected products
metaphorcreations · Post Duplicator
- affected ≤ 3.0.8
References
References4
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/e5c86f72-934c-4f3b-ab2a-65df1490ca8a?source=cve (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/post-duplicator/tags/3.0.6/includes/api.php#L923 (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/post-duplicator/tags/3.0.6/includes/api.php#L843 (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?sfp_email=&sfph_mail=&reponame=&new=3463768%40post-duplicator%2Ftrunk&old=3459096%40post-duplicator%2Ftrunk&sfp_email=&sfph_mail= (opens in a new tab)
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-2026-8521 (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-2026-2301)Record last updated .