CVE-2024-13786
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 education theme for WordPress is vulnerable to PHP Object Injection in all versions up to, and including, 3.6.10 via deserialization of untrusted input in the 'themerex_callback_view_more_posts' function. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject a PHP Object. No known POP chain is present in the vulnerable software, which means this vulnerability has no impact unless another plugin or theme containing a POP chain is installed on the site. If a POP chain is present via an additional plugin or theme installed on the target system, it may allow the attacker to perform actions like delete arbitrary files, retrieve sensitive data, or execute code depending on the POP chain present.
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 education theme for WordPress is vulnerable to PHP Object Injection via deserialization of untrusted input in the themerex_callback_view_more_posts function. This allows unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary PHP objects. While no POP chain exists in the theme itself, the vulnerability becomes exploitable if any other installed plugin or theme contains a POP chain, potentially allowing arbitrary file deletion, data retrieval, or code execution.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
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
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/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 education theme is installedLog in to WordPress admin, go to Appearance > Themes, and verify the education theme (or a child theme based on it) is active or installed.Affected if The education theme is active on the WordPress site.
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Determine the education theme versionNavigate to Appearance > Themes > Theme Details in WordPress admin, or inspect the style.css file in the theme directory to find the Version: field.Affected if The version number is lower than 3.6.11.
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Verify the vulnerable function existsInspect the theme files (typically in functions.php or includes/ajax.php) for the presence of the themerex_callback_view_more_posts function that performs unserialize() on user input.Affected if The function exists and processes untrusted input through unserialize().
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Audit other plugins and themes for POP chainsReview all active plugins and non-education themes for known PHP Object Injection POP chains or unserialize() calls on external input. Check plugin/theme code for classes with __wakeup, __destruct, __toString or __get methods that could be chained.Affected if Any other installed plugin or theme contains a POP chain that can be triggered via the education theme's injection point.
A user is affected if the education theme version is below 3.6.11 AND any other installed component contains a usable POP chain for PHP Object Injection.
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 dataUpdate the education theme to version 3.6.11 or later. If no patch is available, disable the theme or remove any plugins/themes that contain POP chains to reduce exploitability.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-13786 — 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-2024-13786 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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- 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