Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 1.5.6.1
- Affected Plugin
- Portfolio and Projects
- Affected Version
1.5.6- CVSS
- 9.8Critical
- Weakness type
- CWE-506 · Embedded Malicious Code
- CVE
CVE-2026-6443
At a glance
CVE-2026-6443 is a critical-severity Embedded Malicious Code vulnerability in the Portfolio and Projects WordPress plugin, affecting versions 1.5.6. It carries a CVSS score of 9.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 1.5.6.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed April 2026, reported by Cooties.
Vulnerability Overview
All plugins by Essentialplugin for WordPress are vulnerable to an injected backdoor in various versions. This is due to the plugin being sold to a malicious threat actor that embedded a backdoor in all of the plugin's they acquired. This makes it possible for the threat actor to maintain a persistent backdoor and inject spam into the affected sites.
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, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.
CWE-506: Embedded Malicious Code
Reaching this weakness in Portfolio and Projects 1.5.6 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Embedded malicious code means functionality was deliberately placed in the software to act against the site owner's interest, rather than being an accidental defect.
Removing the software is not enough on its own — anything it created or modified while active has to be audited too. For Portfolio and Projects the fix is 1.5.6.1: builds 1.5.6 are affected, anything from 1.5.6.1 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 1.5.6.1, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
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: Portfolio and Projects 1.5.6.1 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Scanner
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C