CVE-2026-15005

Loco Translate <= 2.8.5 - Cross-Site Request Forgery to Remote Code Execution via 'template' Parameter

2026-07-15 20:13
mikemyers

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 2.8.6
Affected Plugin
Loco Translate
Affected Version
<= 2.8.5
CVSS
8.8High
Weakness type
CWE-352 · Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
CVE
CVE-2026-15005
View all Loco Translate vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2026-15005 is a high-severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the Loco Translate WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.8.5. It carries a CVSS score of 8.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 2.8.6; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed July 2026, reported by mikemyers.

Vulnerability Overview

The Loco Translate plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery in all versions up to, and including, 2.8.5. This is due to missing or incorrect nonce validation on the execTemplate function. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary PHP code on the server by supplying a php://filter stream wrapper URI as the 'template' parameter, which bypasses path validation and is passed directly to the include sink in execTemplate() via a forged request granted they can trick a site administrator into performing an action such as clicking on a link.

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 privileges on the target site. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

CWE-352: Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)

Loco Translate <= 2.8.5 carries this weakness at template, and reaching it takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Cross-site request forgery abuses the fact that browsers attach a victim's cookies to any request, so a state-changing action that only checks who you are, not whether you meant to act, can be triggered from another site.

An attacker who gets a logged-in user to load a crafted page can perform that action as them, with the impact scaling to whatever the victim's role is allowed to do. For Loco Translate the fix is 2.8.6: builds <= 2.8.5 are affected, anything from 2.8.6 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2.8.6, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Loco Translate: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Loco Translate 2.8.6 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-15005https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/241d7a82-5fa5-40e3-9336-823644ca17f0https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-15005

Related records

Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C