CVE-2026-4280Breaking News WP <= 1.3 - Missing Authorization to Authenticated (Subscriber+) Local File Inclusion/Read
- 6.5MediumCVSS base score
- 0.81%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 42% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
The Breaking News WP plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Local File Inclusion in all versions up to, and including, 1.3. This is due to the brnwp_ajax_form AJAX endpoint lacking both authorization checks and CSRF verification, combined with insufficient path validation when the brnwp_theme option value is passed directly to an include() statement in the brnwp_show_breaking_news_wp() shortcode handler. While sanitize_text_field() is applied to user input, it does not strip directory traversal sequences (../). This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to overwrite the brnwp_theme option with a directory traversal payload (e.g., ../../../../etc/passwd) and subsequently trigger file inclusion of arbitrary files on the server when the shortcode is rendered.
Timeline
ID reserved
By Wordfence
- 37 days later
· 37 days later
Published
- 1 day later
· 1 day 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:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N |
| NVDNVD · Deferred | 3.1 | Medium6.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.81% · top 42% of all CVEs (13 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 6.5.
Affected products
- affected ≤ 1.3
References
References7
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/4772b482-f5e5-4707-b012-aca70fc89e49?source=cve (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/breaking-news-wp/trunk/breaking-news.php#L85 (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/breaking-news-wp/tags/1.3/breaking-news.php#L85 (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/breaking-news-wp/trunk/breaking-news.php#L366 (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/breaking-news-wp/tags/1.3/breaking-news.php#L366 (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/breaking-news-wp/trunk/breaking-news.php#L372 (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/breaking-news-wp/tags/1.3/breaking-news.php#L372 (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-2026-24688 (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-2026-4280)Record last updated .