What is CVE-2016-10983?

CVE-2016-10983 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Ghost, classified under Improper Authentication. CVSS score: 6.5/10. Published 2019-09-17.

How severe is CVE-2016-10983?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.5 out of 10.

Is CVE-2016-10983 known to be exploited?

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

Auth bypass in Ghost

CVE-2016-10983

The ghost plugin before 0.5.6 for WordPress has no access control for wp-admin/tools.php?ghostexport=true downloads of exported data.

Vulnerability class: Broken Authentication

Published 2019-09-17 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 6.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.015 (73.5th percentile), scored 2026-09-29.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 74th percentile — 73.5% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.015 · newest: 0.015 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Ghost

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-287 — Improper Authentication

Public proof-of-concept exploits

20142995/nuclei-templates

References

wordpress.org/plugins/ghost/ (Release Notes)
packetstormsecurity.com/files/136887/ (Exploit, VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2016-10983?: CVE-2016-10983 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Ghost, classified under Improper Authentication. CVSS score: 6.5/10. Published 2019-09-17.
How severe is CVE-2016-10983?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.5 out of 10.
Is CVE-2016-10983 known to be exploited?: 1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.