WordPressCMS
CVE-2014-5266
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 · uneditedThe Incutio XML-RPC (IXR) Library, as used in WordPress before 3.9.2 and Drupal 6.x before 6.33 and 7.x before 7.31, does not limit the number of elements in an XML document, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) via a large document, a different vulnerability than CVE-2014-5265.
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 confidenceThe Incutio XML-RPC (IXR) Library lacks proper limits on XML element count during parsing, allowing remote attackers to trigger CPU exhaustion by submitting large XML documents. This affects WordPress <3.9.2 and Drupal <6.33/7.31 via their XML-RPC endpoints.
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
<= 3.9.1= 3.0= 3.0.1= 3.0.2= 3.0.3= 3.0.4= 3.0.5= 3.0.6= 3.1= 3.1.1= 3.1.2= 3.1.3
DrupalCMS
= 6.0= 6.1= 6.2= 6.3= 6.4= 6.5= 6.6= 6.7= 6.8= 6.9= 6.10= 6.11
Debian LinuxOperating system
= 7.0CVSS 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
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P
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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Identify the CMS platformDetermine whether WordPress or Drupal is running on the server by examining the web application files or HTTP responses.Affected if This CVE affects only WordPress and Drupal installations using the IXR XML-RPC library.
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Check the WordPress versionAccess the WordPress admin dashboard under Dashboard > Updates, or inspect the wp-includes/version.php file for the $wp_version variable.Affected if WordPress versions 3.0 through 3.9.1 are vulnerable. Compare your installed version against this range.
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Check the Drupal versionAccess the Drupal administration status report at admin/reports/status, or check the CHANGELOG.txt file in the Drupal root directory for the version number.Affected if Drupal 6.x versions up to 6.32 and Drupal 7.x versions up to 7.30 are vulnerable. Compare your installed version against these ranges.
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Verify XML-RPC endpoint accessibilityAttempt to access the XML-RPC endpoint: for WordPress, navigate to /xmlrpc.php; for Drupal, check if the xmlrpc module is enabled or access /xmlrpc.php. A response other than 404 or 403 indicates it is exposed.Affected if The vulnerability is only exploitable when the XML-RPC endpoint is reachable. If XML-RPC is disabled or blocked, the attack surface is not present.
You are affected if your WordPress version is 3.9.1 or lower, or your Drupal version is 6.32 or lower (6.x) or 7.30 or lower (7.x), AND the XML-RPC endpoint is accessible on your server.
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 3.9.2+ and Drupal to 6.33+ or 7.31+ to obtain the patched IXR Library version. Alternatively, rate-limit or disable XML-RPC endpoints if not required.
Fix this in WordPress
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,408.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2014-5266 — 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-2014-5266 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