Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 3.7.18
- Affected Core
- WordPress 4.7
- Affected Version
3.7 – 4.7.1 · 12 branches- CVSS
- 4.3Medium
- Weakness type
- CWE-200 · Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor
- CVE
CVE-2017-6514
At a glance
CVE-2017-6514 is a medium-severity Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor vulnerability in the WordPress 4.7 WordPress release line, affecting 3.7 – 4.7.1 · 12 branches. It carries a CVSS score of 4.3 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). The issue is fixed in version 3.7.18; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed January 2017.
Vulnerability Overview
WordPress 4.7.2 mishandles listings of post authors, which allows remote attackers to obtain sensitive information (Path Disclosure) via a /wp-json/oembed/1.0/embed?url= request, related to the "author_name":" substring.
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.
CWE-200: Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor
WordPress 4.7 3.7 – 4.7.1 · 12 branches carries this weakness at author_name, and reaching it takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Sensitive information exposure means data the application intended to keep internal is returned to a caller who should not be able to see it.
The disclosed data — credentials, tokens, customer records or internal paths — is usually worth more as material for a follow-up attack than as an end in itself. For WordPress 4.7 the fix is 3.7.18: builds 3.7 – 4.7.1 · 12 branches are affected, anything from 3.7.18 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to one of the following versions, or a newer patched version: 3.7.18, 3.8.18, 3.9.16, 4.0.15, 4.1.15, 4.2.12, 4.3.8, 4.4.7, 4.5.6, 4.6.3, 4.7.2
How does WordSec protect against this?
The fix is the thing that ends this: updating to 3.7.18 is the step that ends it.
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Same weakness class
- 7.5CVE-2018-20151: WordPress Core < 5.0.1 Info Disclosure
CVE-2018-20151 - 7.5CVE-2011-3818: WordPress Core 2.9.2 and 3.0.4 Info Disclosure
CVE-2011-3818 - 7.5CVE-2006-0986: WordPress Core < 2.0.2 Sensitive Information Disclosure
CVE-2006-0986 - 7.3CVE-2005-2110: WordPress Core < 1.5.1.3 Info Disclosure
CVE-2005-2110
Other vulnerabilities in WordPress 4.7
- 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
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