Name: CVE-2016-6896: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
Creator: Rapid7
Published: 2017-01-18T00:00:00.000Z
License: https://www.rapid7.com/legal/website-terms-of-use/
Keywords: CVE, CVE-2016-6896, CWE-22, CVSS 7.1, EPSS 0.37104

Directory traversal vulnerability in the wp_ajax_update_plugin function in wp-admin/includes/ajax-actions.php in WordPress 4.5.3 allows remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service or read certain text files via a .. (dot dot) in the plugin parameter to wp-admin/admin-ajax.php, as demonstrated by /dev/random read operations that deplete the entropy pool.

CVSS Details

CVSS 3.0 Base Score: 7.1
CVSS 3.0 Vector: (CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:H)

Covered by Rapid7

Product	Vendor Advisory	Solution File	Added	Published
Debian	—	Upgrade wordpress	Jul 30, 2024	Jan 18, 2017
Ubuntu	—	No solution exists	Jun 26, 2025	Jan 18, 2017
Wordpress	—	Upgrade Wordpress to version 4.5.3	May 16, 2017	Jan 18, 2017

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CVSS Details

Covered by Rapid7

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