Deserialization of Untrusted DataWeakness · CWE-502

CVE-2026-22453

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-03-05
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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
Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerability in ThemeREX Pets Club petclub allows Object Injection.This issue affects Pets Club: from n/a through <= 2.3.

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 · moderate confidence

A deserialization vulnerability in ThemeREX Pets Club plugin allows attackers to inject malicious PHP objects by supplying untrusted serialized data. This object injection can potentially lead to remote code execution, file operations, or other attacks depending on available gadget chains in the application and surrounding environment.

MitigationUpgrade to a patched version of ThemeREX Pets Club that properly validates and sanitizes deserialized data, or implement input validation to reject untrusted serialized data at the application boundary.

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 checks

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

  1. Identify if ThemeREX Pets Club plugin is installed
    Check the WordPress plugins directory for the ThemeREX Pets Club plugin files, typically located in wp-content/plugins/ or via wp-cli plugin list command
    Affected if The plugin files exist in the plugins directory
  2. Determine the installed plugin version
    Check the plugin's main PHP file for the Version header in the plugin comment block, or check readme.txt for the version number
    Affected if Version cannot be confirmed as patched or is within an affected version range
  3. Verify the plugin handles serialized data
    Search plugin PHP files for unserialize() function calls, particularly where input comes from user-supplied data such as $_POST, $_GET, or $_REQUEST parameters
    Affected if The plugin contains unserialize() calls processing external input
  4. Check for deserialization entry points
    Inspect AJAX handlers and form processing files for deserialization of data passed through request parameters, especially looking for patterns like unserialize($_POST['...'])
    Affected if Untrusted input is directly passed to unserialize() without validation

A user is affected if ThemeREX Pets Club plugin is installed, contains vulnerable deserialization code, and processes untrusted serialized input from external sources.

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

Upgrade to a patched version of ThemeREX Pets Club that properly validates and sanitizes deserialized data, or implement input validation to reject untrusted serialized data at the application boundary.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
12.0 hours of engineering $2,130
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Scan for this in your stack

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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-2026-22453 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
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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