What is CVE-2018-21013?

CVE-2018-21013 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Upperthemes Swape, classified under Improper Privilege Management. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2019-09-09.

How severe is CVE-2018-21013?

Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.

Is CVE-2018-21013 known to be exploited?

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

Privilege escalation in Upperthemes Swape

CVE-2018-21013

The Swape theme before 1.2.1 for WordPress has incorrect access control, as demonstrated by allowing new administrator accounts via vectors involving xmlPath to wp-admin/admin-ajax.php.

Vulnerability class: Privilege Escalation

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

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 9.8 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.020 (79.8th percentile), scored 2026-09-30.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 80th percentile — 79.8% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.020 · newest: 0.020 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Upperthemes Swape

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-269 — Improper Privilege Management

Public proof-of-concept exploits

20142995/nuclei-templates

References

wpvulndb.com/vulnerabilities/9024 (Product, Exploit, Third Party Advisory, Release Notes)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2018-21013?: CVE-2018-21013 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Upperthemes Swape, classified under Improper Privilege Management. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2019-09-09.
How severe is CVE-2018-21013?: Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.
Is CVE-2018-21013 known to be exploited?: 1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.