Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall <= 4.23.87 - Authenticated (Contributor+) PHP Object Injection
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 4.23.88
- Affected Plugin
- Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall
- Affected Version
<= 4.23.87- CVSS
- 7.5High
- Weakness type
- CWE-502 · Deserialization of Untrusted Data
- CVE
CVE-2026-39478
At a glance
CVE-2026-39478 is a high-severity Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerability in the Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 4.23.87. It carries a CVSS score of 7.5 (reachable over the network; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Contributor level or above. The issue is fixed in version 4.23.88; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed April 2026, reported by daroo.
Vulnerability Overview
The Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to PHP Object Injection in versions up to, and including, 4.23.87 via deserialization of untrusted input. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with contributor-level access and above, to inject a PHP Object. No known POP chain is present in the vulnerable software. If a POP chain is present via an additional plugin or theme installed on the target system, it could allow the attacker to delete arbitrary files, retrieve sensitive data, or execute code.
Technical Analysis
The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.
CWE-502: Deserialization of Untrusted Data
Reaching this weakness in Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall <= 4.23.87 takes an account at Contributor level or above. Deserialization of untrusted data means the application reconstructs objects from input a caller controls, letting the attacker choose which classes get instantiated and what their properties hold.
A workable chain turns deserialization into file writes, deletions or code execution, depending on what the loaded classes do in their magic methods. For Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall the fix is 4.23.88: builds <= 4.23.87 are affected, anything from 4.23.88 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 4.23.88, 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: Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall 4.23.88 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Scanner
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Same weakness class
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CVE-2026-57691 - 7.2Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall <= 4.15.17 XSS
- 6.5CVE-2025-11705: Anti-Malware Security… Authenticated (Subscriber+)
CVE-2025-11705 - 6.1CVE-2022-0953: Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force… Reflected XSS
CVE-2022-0953 - 6.1CVE-2022-2599: Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force… Reflected XSS
CVE-2022-2599 - 6.1CVE-2021-25101: Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force… Reflected XSS
CVE-2021-25101 - 6.1Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall <= 4.15.22 XSS
Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C