WordPress Core < 2.3.3 & WordPress MU < 1.3.2 - Remote Code Execution
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 1.3.2
- Affected Core
- WordPress 1.3
- Affected Version
<= 1.3.1- CVSS
- 8.8High
- Weakness type
- CWE-94 · Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
- CVE
CVE-2008-5695
At a glance
CVE-2008-5695 is a high-severity Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection') vulnerability in the WordPress 1.3 WordPress release line, affecting <= 1.3.1. It carries a CVSS score of 8.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). The issue is fixed in version 1.3.2; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed September 2007.
Vulnerability Overview
wp-admin/options.php in WordPress MU before 1.3.2, and WordPress 2.3.2 and earlier, does not properly validate requests to update an option, which allows remote authenticated users with manage_options and upload_files capabilities to execute arbitrary code by uploading a PHP script and adding this script's pathname to active_plugins.
Technical Analysis
The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, with low attack complexity — no special timing or configuration is needed, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.
CWE-94: Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
Reaching this weakness in WordPress 1.3 <= 1.3.1 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Code injection means input from a request reaches a language construct that evaluates code, so the attacker's text is executed rather than treated as data.
The injected code runs with the web server's privileges, giving the attacker the same access to the database and filesystem as WordPress itself. For WordPress 1.3 the fix is 1.3.2: builds <= 1.3.1 are affected, anything from 1.3.2 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 1.3.2, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to WordPress 1.3: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. Classes like this one can leave something behind, so the staged malware scanner is the second half: it looks for dropped files and modified code rather than for the request that created them. None of that substitutes for the fix: updating to 1.3.2 is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Scanner
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Same weakness class
Other vulnerabilities in WordPress 1.3
- 9.8CVE-2026-63030: WordPress Core 6.9 - 7.0.1 Remote Code Execution
CVE-2026-63030 - 9.8CVE-2024-31211: WordPress Core 6.4.0 - 6.4.1 RCE POP Chain
CVE-2024-31211 - 9.8WordPress Core < 6.0.3 SQL Injection via WP_Date_Query
- 9.8CVE-2021-29476: WordPress Core < 5.5.3 PHP Object Injection Gadget
CVE-2021-29476 - 9.8CVE-2017-16510: WordPress Core SQL Injection
CVE-2017-16510 - 9.8CVE-2017-14723: WordPress Core < 4.8.2 SQL Injection
CVE-2017-14723 - 9.8CVE-2007-6013: WordPress Core 1.5 - 2.3.1 Authorization Bypass
CVE-2007-6013 - 9.8CVE-2007-6318: WordPress Core < 2.3.2 SQL Injection
CVE-2007-6318
Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C