Deserialization in Ajax Search Lite

CVE-2026-16258

The Ajax Search Lite WordPress plugin before 4.14.5 does not prevent the deserialization of untrusted input, allowing unauthenticated attackers to perform PHP Object Injection. When a suitable POP chain is present via another installed Ajax Search Lite WordPress plugin before 4.14.5 or , this can be leveraged to achieve Remote Code Execution.

Vulnerability class: Insecure Deserialization

Published · last modified .

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: 0.008 (58.2th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 58th percentile — 58.2% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2026-16258: held from 0.008 to 0.008.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.008 · newest: 0.008 · change: 0.000

Affected products

  • Ajax Search Lite — versions 0

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-16258?
CVE-2026-16258 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Ajax Search Lite, classified under Deserialization of Untrusted Data. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2026-08-07.
How severe is CVE-2026-16258?
Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.