Query Wrangler <= 1.5.57 - Authenticated (Subscriber+) Remote Code Execution via 'options' Parameter

The Query Wrangler plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Remote Code Execution in all versions up to, and including, 1.5.57 via the 'options' parameter parameter. This is due to missing capability check and nonce verification on the wp_ajax_qw_form_ajax handler, combined with unsanitized attacker-controlled options fully replacing saved query options and being passed directly to call_user_func_array() guarded only by function_exists(). This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with subscriber-level access and above, to execute code on the server. Exploitation requires only that at least one query row exists in the database, as the query_id is a small enumerable integer with no further access control.

An attacker needs Subscriber 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: Query Wrangler 1.5.58 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

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