What is CVE-2014-5240?

CVE-2014-5240 is a vulnerability in WordPress, classified under Cross-site Scripting. Published 2014-08-18.

Is CVE-2014-5240 known to be exploited?

1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

XSS in WordPress

CVE-2014-5240

Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in wp-includes/pluggable.php in WordPress before 3.9.2, when Multisite is enabled, allows remote authenticated administrators to inject arbitrary web script or HTML, and obtain Super Admin privileges, via a crafted avatar URL.

Vulnerability class: XSS (Cross-Site Scripting)

Published 2014-08-18 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v2 metric

CVSS v2 base score 2.1 (Low). Vector: AV:N/AC:H/Au:S/C:N/I:P/A:N. This CVE predates CVSS v3 and has no v3 score from NVD.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.022 (81.8th percentile), scored 2026-09-28.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 82nd percentile — 81.8% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.022 · newest: 0.022 · change: 0.000

Affected products

WordPress — versions 3.0, 3.0.1, 3.0.2
Debian Linux — versions 7.0

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-79 — Cross-site Scripting

Public proof-of-concept exploits

20142995/nuclei-templates

References

www.debian.org/security/2014/dsa-3001 (vendor-advisory)
wordpress.org/news/2014/08/wordpress-3-9-2/ (Patch, Vendor Advisory)
core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/29398
openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2014/08/13/3 (mailing-list)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2014-5240?: CVE-2014-5240 is a vulnerability in WordPress, classified under Cross-site Scripting. Published 2014-08-18.
Is CVE-2014-5240 known to be exploited?: 1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.