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WordPressCMS

CVE-2018-20152

MEDIUM · 6.5 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-12-14
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 4.9.9 / 5.0.1 or later.
See remediation →
71/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable Zero-click

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 · unedited
In WordPress before 4.9.9 and 5.x before 5.0.1, authors could bypass intended restrictions on post types via crafted input.

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 confidence

In WordPress before 4.9.9 and 5.x before 5.0.1, authors (a limited user role) could bypass intended restrictions on post types by sending specially crafted input to the application, allowing them to potentially create or modify content types they should not have access to.

MitigationUpdate WordPress to version 4.9.9 or 5.0.1 or later to patch the vulnerability in the post type handling logic.

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
Affected:< 4.9.9>= 5.0, < 5.0.1
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 8.0= 9.0

CVSS 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
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify installed WordPress version
    Open wp-includes/version.php and find the $wp_version variable, or use WP-CLI command: wp core version
    Affected if The installed version is less than 4.9.9, or is 5.0.0
  2. Confirm author-level user accounts exist
    Check user roles in WordPress admin under Users > All Users, or query the wp_usermeta table for meta_value containing 'a:1:{s:6:"author";b:1}'
    Affected if At least one user with the Author role exists on the site
  3. Identify custom or restricted post types
    Review installed plugins and themes for custom post types, or use WP-CLI: wp post-type list --status=any to list all registered post types
    Affected if Custom post types with restricted capabilities are registered on the site
  4. Check for content access controls on post types
    Inspect the register_post_type arguments in theme functions.php or plugin files, looking for capabilities or capability_type parameters
    Affected if Post types are configured with custom capabilities that differ from default WP core post capabilities

The environment is affected if WordPress version is below 4.9.9 or is 5.0.0, AND the site has Author-level users AND uses custom post types with access restrictions that could be bypassed.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Upgrade available Upgrade to 4.9.9 / 5.0.1 or later
Fixed in 4.9.95.0.1
Interim mitigation

Update WordPress to version 4.9.9 or 5.0.1 or later to patch the vulnerability in the post type handling logic.

Fix this in WordPress Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,040
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,664.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-20152 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2018-20152 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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