Auth bypass in Smartcrawl Seo Checker, Analyzer & Optimizer

CVE-2026-16979

The SmartCrawl SEO checker, analyzer & optimizer WordPress plugin before 3.16.3 does not perform capability checks on two of its AJAX actions, allowing users with at least the Subscriber role to read the titles of private and draft posts by ID and to enumerate stored post-meta key names.

Vulnerability class: IDOR (Insecure Direct Object Reference)

Published · last modified .

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:L/I:N/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.003 (17.5th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 17th percentile — 17.5% 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-2026-16979: held from 0.002 to 0.003.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.002 · newest: 0.003 · change: +0.001

Affected products

  • Smartcrawl Seo Checker, Analyzer & Optimizer

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-16979?
CVE-2026-16979 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Smartcrawl Seo Checker, Analyzer & Optimizer, classified under Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key. CVSS score: 4.3/10. Published 2026-08-19.
How severe is CVE-2026-16979?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 4.3 out of 10.