CVE-2016-10148

The wp_ajax_update_plugin function in wp-admin/includes/ajax-actions.php in WordPress before 4.6 makes a get_plugin_data call before checking the update_plugins capability, which allows remote authenticated users to bypass intended read-access restrictions via the plugin parameter to wp-admin/admin-ajax.php, a related issue to CVE-2016-6896.

Published: 2017-01-18 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2016-10148 is rated Moderate Risk (44/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.64%). Core evidence: EPSS rose +1.19% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Mandatory action: Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2016-10148

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.45% 1.64% +1.19%
2 2025-04-13 0.49% 0.45% -0.04%
3 2025-03-30 0.49%

Full EPSS history (9 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2016-10148

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
4.3 3.0 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
2.8 1.4 [email protected]
4.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:S)
A single authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
8.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2016-10148

OS Trackers for CVE-2016-10148

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2016-10148 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (wordpress), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2016-10148
ubuntu medium CVE-2016-10148 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (wordpress), 23 status rows across 23 suites (artful, bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, precise, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial, yakkety, zesty): not-affected 19, DNE 1, ignored 1, needed 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2016-10148

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2016-10148

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
wordpress wordpress <= 4.5.5 cpe:2.3:a:wordpress:wordpress:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2016-10148

cvelogic Threat Intelligence