WordPressCMS
CVE-2012-3385
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedWordPress before 3.4.1 does not properly restrict access to post contents such as private or draft posts, which allows remote authors or contributors to obtain sensitive information via unknown vectors.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceThis is an information disclosure vulnerability in WordPress core versions prior to 3.4.1. The application failed to properly enforce access controls on post content, allowing authenticated users with author or contributor roles to view private, password-protected, or draft posts that should have been restricted from their access level.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
WordPressCMS
<= 3.4.0= 0.71= 1.0= 1.0.1= 1.0.2= 1.1.1= 1.2= 1.2.1= 1.2.2= 1.2.3= 1.2.4= 1.2.5CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Determine installed WordPress versionInspect the $wp_version variable in wp-includes/version.php, or view the page source of any frontend/admin page and locate the meta generator tag (e.g., <meta name="generator" content="WordPress X.X.X" />)Affected if The installed version is 3.4.0 or lower, or matches one of the older version numbers listed (1.0 through 1.2.5, 1.1.1, 2.0.1, etc.)
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Identify users with author or contributor rolesQuery the wp_users and wp_usermeta tables (or use the WordPress admin Users panel) to list accounts assigned the author or contributor roleAffected if At least one user account has the author or contributor role assigned in the system
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Check for private or password-protected postsQuery the wp_posts table for posts where post_status is 'private' or post_password is not empty, or use the WordPress admin Posts list and filter by statusAffected if There are posts in the database with post_status set to 'private' or with a password set (post_password field is non-empty)
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Verify draft or pending posts existQuery the wp_posts table for posts where post_status is 'draft' or 'pending', or use the WordPress admin Posts list and filter by these statusesAffected if There are posts with post_status set to 'draft' or 'pending' in the database
The environment is affected if the installed WordPress version is 3.4.0 or lower, and the site contains author or contributor user accounts alongside any private, password-protected, or draft posts that those users should not be able to view.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade WordPress to version 3.4.1 or later to obtain the patched version that properly enforces post access controls.
Fix this in WordPress
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation3.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,800.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2012-3385 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2012-3385 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data