Yoast Duplicate Post <= 4.5 - Authenticated (Contributor+) Missing Authorization to Arbitrary Post Duplication and Overwrite
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 4.6
- Affected Plugin
- Yoast Duplicate Post
- Affected Version
<= 4.5- CVSS
- 5.4Medium
- Weakness type
- CWE-862 · Missing Authorization
- CVE
CVE-2026-1217
At a glance
CVE-2026-1217 is a medium-severity Missing Authorization vulnerability in the Yoast Duplicate Post WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 4.5. It carries a CVSS score of 5.4 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Contributor level or above. The issue is fixed in version 4.6; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed March 2026, reported by johska.
Vulnerability Overview
The Yoast Duplicate Post plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized modification of data due to a missing capability check on the clone_bulk_action_handler() and republish_request() functions in all versions up to, and including, 4.5. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Contributor-level access and above, to duplicate any post on the site including private, draft, and trashed posts they shouldn't have access to. Additionally, attackers with Author-level access and above can use the Rewrite & Republish feature to overwrite any published post with their own content.
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-862: Missing Authorization
Yoast Duplicate Post <= 4.5 carries this weakness at clone_bulk_action_handler(), and reaching it takes an account at Contributor level or above. A missing authorization check means a function is reachable by anyone who can reach the endpoint, because the code never asks whether the caller is allowed to perform the action.
Any user who can reach the endpoint gets to run an action reserved for higher-privileged roles, from reading protected data to changing settings or content. For Yoast Duplicate Post the fix is 4.6: builds <= 4.5 are affected, anything from 4.6 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 4.6, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
Because it turns on account access, WordSec's login security is the relevant layer: role-based two-factor, captcha and brute-force limits raise the cost of getting the account this needs. None of that substitutes for the fix: Yoast Duplicate Post 4.6 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Login Security
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Other vulnerabilities in Yoast Duplicate Post
- 9.8CVE-2014-10379: Yoast Duplicate Post <= 2.5 SQL Injection
CVE-2014-10379 - 6.1CVE-2014-10378: Yoast Duplicate Post <= 2.6 Cross-Site Scripting
CVE-2014-10378 - 5.5CVE-2019-25314: Yoast Duplicate Post <= 3.2.3 Stored XSS
CVE-2019-25314 - 4.4CVE-2019-25314: Duplicate Post <= 3.2.3 Stored Cross-Site Scripting
CVE-2019-25314
Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C