CVE-2026-12242

AdRotate Banner Manager <= 5.17.7 - Authenticated (Contributor+) PHP Code Injection via 'banner' Shortcode Attribute

2026-06-23 00:00
Osvaldo Noe Gonzalez Del Rio (Os)

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 5.17.8
Affected Plugin
AdRotate Banner Manager
Affected Version
<= 5.17.7
CVSS
8.8High
Weakness type
CWE-94 · Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
CVE
CVE-2026-12242
View all AdRotate Banner Manager vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2026-12242 is a high-severity Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection') vulnerability in the AdRotate Banner Manager WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 5.17.7. It carries a CVSS score of 8.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Contributor level or above. The issue is fixed in version 5.17.8; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed June 2026, reported by Osvaldo Noe Gonzalez Del Rio (Os).

Vulnerability Overview

The AdRotate Banner Manager plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to PHP Code Injection in all versions up to, and including, 5.17.7 via the 'banner' attribute of the adrotate shortcode. This is due to insufficient input validation and sanitization of the banner shortcode attribute before concatenation into a PHP code string wrapped in W3 Total Cache mfunc or Borlabs Cache fragment markers. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Contributor-level access and above, to execute arbitrary PHP code on the server. This vulnerability requires W3 Total Cache or Borlabs Cache support to be enabled in AdRotate settings.

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')

AdRotate Banner Manager <= 5.17.7 carries this weakness at banner, and reaching it takes an account at Contributor level or above. 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 AdRotate Banner Manager the fix is 5.17.8: builds <= 5.17.7 are affected, anything from 5.17.8 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 5.17.8, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

An attacker needs Contributor access first, so the firewall sees the attempt as traffic from a logged-in account: 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: AdRotate Banner Manager 5.17.8 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Scanner
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-12242https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/f29b905c-57cf-4fb8-b6af-eb0c367cd3e4https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-12242

Related records

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