NVD / CVE Program· CNA mitre

CVE-2019-20043: In in wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-posts-controller.php in WordPress 3.7 to 5.3.0, authenticated users who do not have the r

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 18/100)

The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 2.4% (FIRST EPSS); higher than 84.5% of all records.
Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it. A low-privileged account is enough. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
Fixed version: wordpress (Debian:10) 5.0.4+dfsg1-1+deb10u1; wordpress (Debian:12) 5.3.2+dfsg1-1.

Low priority for now. Upgrade to wordpress (Debian:10) 5.0.4+dfsg1-1+deb10u1; wordpress (Debian:12) 5.3.2+dfsg1-1 or later.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

In in wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-posts-controller.php in WordPress 3.7 to 5.3.0, authenticated users who do not have the rights to publish a post are able to mark posts as sticky or unsticky via the REST API. For example, the contributor role does not have such rights, but this allowed them to bypass that. This has been patched in WordPress 5.3.1, along with all the previous WordPress versions from 3.7 to 5.3 via a minor release.

MediumCVSS 4.3 · v3.1—No exploit Fix available

Published: Dec 27, 2019
Updated: Jun 16, 2026
EPSS: 2.4% · 84th percentile
CWE: CWE-269

Report tools

JSON

Action score

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS: 17 / 40 · 4.3 / 10
CISA KEV: 0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS: 1 / 30 · 2.4%

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

Vendor	Product	CPE
wordpress	wordpress	cpe:2.3:a:wordpress:wordpress
debian	debian linux	cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux

Using wordpress? Add it to your stack and be the first to know about CVEs like this one. (WordPress)

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

wordpress wordpress3.7 and later · before 5.3.1

Package-level exposure

OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.

Ecosystem	Package	Affected range	Fix
Debian:10	wordpress	before 5.0.4+dfsg1-1+deb10u1	5.0.4+dfsg1-1+deb10u1
Debian:12	wordpress	before 5.3.2+dfsg1-1	5.3.2+dfsg1-1

Same product

wordpress: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

CVE-2026-87902An unauthenticated attacker can make `get_page_template()` page-template resolution include a chosen readable local `.php` file outside the KEV
91Now
CVE-2026-63030WordPress < 7.0.2 - REST API batch-route confusion and SQL injection issue leading to Remote Code ExecutionKEV
72This week
CVE-2026-60137WordPress < 7.0.2 - Facilitated SQL Injection via author__not_in in WP_QueryKEV
60This week

Published before and after this one in the same product

← EarlierCVE-2019-20041Dec 27, 2019 · wp_kses_bad_protocol in wp-includes/kses.php in WordPress before 5.3.1 mishandles the HTML5 colon named entity, allowing attackers to bypass
40Plan
← EarlierCVE-2019-20042Dec 27, 2019 · In wp-includes/formatting.php in WordPress 3.7 to 5.3.0, the function wp_targeted_link_rel() can be used in a particular way to result in a
25Monitor
Later →CVE-2020-11025Apr 30, 2020 · Authenticated cross-site scripting (XSS) in WordPress Customizer
21Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

Product / package	Fixed version	Source
debian:wordpress	5.3.2+dfsg1-1 · Debian:12	Package registry (OSV)

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

No history yet (it accumulates with the daily EPSS job).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

WordPressHackerOne · paid

The product’s vendor appears in a public program. Matched by name; verify the scope text in the program.

Technical details

Attack conditions

Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it.
A low-privileged account is enough.
No user action is required.
No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality: none
Integrity: low · data or configuration can be modified
Availability: none

Attack vector: Network
Attack complexity: Low
Privileges required: Low
User interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality impact: None
Integrity impact: Low
Availability impact: None

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-269 · Improper Privilege Management

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N

nvd-primary

Root cause

To simplify setup, a service account is granted broad, cluster-wide permissions. The principle of least privilege is skipped during installation.

The bug in code

The whole CWE-269 class

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

Vulnerable

yaml

1kind: ClusterRole
2rules:
3  - apiGroups: ["*"]
4    resources: ["*"]
5    verbs: ["*"]

Fixed

yaml

1kind: Role
2metadata:
3  namespace: lodos-system
4rules:
5  - apiGroups: ["apps"]
6    resources: ["deployments"]
7    verbs: ["get", "list", "update"]

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

Attack patterns (CAPEC)

ATT&CK techniques

Abuse Elevation Control MechanismT1548

Change log

Fix✗ → ✓Sep 28, 2026, 10:48 PM UTC

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References

core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/46893/trunk

Show all references (7 more)

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

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