Missing AuthorizationWeakness · CWE-862

CVE-2026-1656

MEDIUM · 5.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-02-18
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
62/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges 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
The Business Directory Plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to authorization bypass due to a missing authorization check in all versions up to, and including, 6.4.20. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to modify arbitrary listings, including changing titles, content, and email addresses, by directly referencing the listing ID in crafted requests to the wpbdp_ajax AJAX action.

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

The Business Directory Plugin for WordPress has an authorization bypass vulnerability in its wpbdp_ajax AJAX action. The plugin fails to verify user permissions before allowing modifications to directory listings, enabling unauthenticated attackers to change titles, content, and email addresses of any listing by specifying the listing ID in crafted requests.

MitigationUpdate the Business Directory Plugin to version 6.4.21 or later which includes proper authorization checks. Until patched, consider restricting AJAX endpoints or monitoring for suspicious listing modification activity.

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
None
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/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. Verify Business Directory Plugin is installed
    Navigate to WordPress admin > Plugins and check if 'Business Directory Plugin' appears in the installed plugins list, or inspect the plugin files in /wp-content/plugins/business-directory-plugin/
    Affected if Plugin is installed and active
  2. Check installed plugin version
    In WordPress admin > Plugins > Business Directory Plugin, view the version number displayed, or check the main plugin file header for the 'Version' tag
    Affected if Version is below 6.4.21 (vulnerable versions)
  3. Confirm wpbdp_ajax endpoint is accessible
    Send a test HTTP request to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with action=wpbdp_ajax and a crafted listing modification payload (e.g., listing_id parameter with any existing listing ID) without providing authentication credentials
    Affected if Request returns success without requiring authentication or permission validation
  4. Identify existing listings
    Query the wp_posts table where post_type='wpbdp_listing' or view listings in the Business Directory admin panel to see what listing IDs exist
    Affected if One or more listings exist with known IDs that could be modified via the vulnerable endpoint
  5. Check for unauthorized listing modifications in logs
    Review web server access logs and WordPress audit logs for admin-ajax.php requests with action=wpbdp_ajax that include listing_id parameters and originate from unauthenticated IP addresses
    Affected if Such requests appear in logs, especially modifying listing titles, content, or email fields

User is affected if the Business Directory Plugin is installed with a version below 6.4.21 AND the wpbdp_ajax endpoint accepts unauthenticated listing modification requests.

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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Update the Business Directory Plugin to version 6.4.21 or later which includes proper authorization checks. Until patched, consider restricting AJAX endpoints or monitoring for suspicious listing modification activity.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,490
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

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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-2026-1656 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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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
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