Privilege escalation in Wordpress
CVE-2019-20043
In in wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-posts-controller.php in WordPress 3.7 to 5.3.0, authenticated users who do not have the rights to publish a post are able to mark posts as sticky or unsticky via the REST API. For example, the contributor role does not have such rights, but this allowed them to bypass that. This has been patched in WordPress 5.3.1, along with all the previous WordPress versions from 3.7 to 5.3 via a minor release.
Vulnerability class: Privilege Escalation
EPSS: 0.024 (82.5th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 4.3 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N.
Affected products
- Wordpress
- Debian Debian_linux — versions 9.0, 10.0
- N/a — versions n/a
Weakness classification (CWE)
Public proof-of-concept exploits
References
- cve@mitre.org (Third Party Advisory, x_refsource_MISC, Release Notes)
- cve@mitre.org (x_refsource_MISC, Release Notes, Vendor Advisory)
- cve@mitre.org (Patch, x_refsource_MISC)
- cve@mitre.org (Third Party Advisory, x_refsource_MISC)
- cve@mitre.org (mailing-list, x_refsource_BUGTRAQ, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
- cve@mitre.org (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory, x_refsource_DEBIAN)
- cve@mitre.org (x_refsource_CONFIRM, Third Party Advisory)
- cve@mitre.org (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory, x_refsource_DEBIAN)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2019-20043?
- CVE-2019-20043 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Wordpress, classified under Improper Privilege Management. CVSS score: 4.3/10. Published 2019-12-27.
- How severe is CVE-2019-20043?
- Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 4.3 out of 10.
- Is CVE-2019-20043 known to be exploited?
- 8 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.