NewslettersWordPress extension · Tribulant
CVE-2018-20987
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 newsletters-lite plugin before 4.6.8.6 for WordPress has PHP object injection.
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 newsletters-lite WordPress plugin before version 4.6.8.6 is vulnerable to PHP object injection, a deserialization vulnerability that allows unauthenticated attackers to inject malicious PHP objects into the application. This can lead to remote code execution if suitable 'gadget chains' exist within the plugin or other installed components.
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
NewslettersWordPress extension
< 4.6.8.6CVSS 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
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
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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Confirm the newsletters-lite plugin is installedAccess the WordPress admin panel, navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins, and look for 'Tribulant Newsletters' or 'newsletters-lite' in the list of installed plugins.Affected if The plugin appears in the installed plugins list.
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Identify the installed plugin versionIn the Plugins page, locate the Tribulant Newsletters entry and read the version number displayed beneath the plugin name. Alternatively, inspect the main plugin file (newsletters-lite.php or similar) in wp-content/plugins/ and look for the 'Version' header in the plugin comment block.Affected if The displayed version number is lower than 4.6.8.6.
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Verify the plugin is activeOn the Plugins > Installed Plugins page, check if Tribulant Newsletters shows as 'Active' under the plugin status column.Affected if The plugin is active and the version is below 4.6.8.6.
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Check for recent access logs indicating deserialization attemptsReview web server access logs (typically in /var/log/apache2/ or /var/log/nginx/) for unusual POST requests to plugin endpoints containing PHP serialization patterns such as 'O:','a:','s:' or base64-encoded serialized objects.Affected if Suspicious deserialization payloads are found in logs targeting the newsletters plugin endpoints.
A user is affected if the Tribulant Newsletters plugin is installed, active, and running at a version lower than 4.6.8.6.
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.
dbcve · scoped4.6.8.6
Update the newsletters-lite plugin to version 4.6.8.6 or later to remediate this vulnerability. If immediate patching is not possible, consider disabling the plugin until an update can be applied.
Newsletters Lite plugin version 4.6.8.6 or later
- Log in to WordPress admin dashboard
- Navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins
- Find the newsletters-lite plugin
- Click 'Update now' if an update is available, or manually update to version 4.6.8.6 or later
- Verify the plugin version shows 4.6.8.6 or higher after updating
- Test newsletter creation and sending functionality to confirm the plugin works correctly
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Fix this in Newsletters
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,696.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-20987 — 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-2018-20987 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