CVE-2020-36728 | Adning Advertising <= 1.5.5 - Unauthenticated Arbitrary File Deletion via Path Traversal

Exp

The Adning Advertising plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to file deletion via path traversal in versions up to, and including, 1.5.5. This allows unauthenticated attackers to delete arbitrary files which can be used to reset and gain full control of a site.

Published: 2023-06-07 Last update: 2026-04-08 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2020-36728 is rated High Exploit Risk (70.7/100): CVSS Medium severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 78.05%, 99th percentile). Core evidence: 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Mandatory action: Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

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

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2020-36728

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2020-36728

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 2026-06-08 83.06% 78.05% -5.01%
2 2026-05-05 84.42% 83.06% -1.36%
3 2026-03-02 84.42%

Full EPSS history (27 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-36728

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/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:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
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:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
3.9 2.5 [email protected]
9.8 3.1 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H 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:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
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:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
3.9 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-36728

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-36728

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
tunasite adning_advertising < 1.5.6 cpe:2.3:a:tunasite:adning_advertising:*:*:*:*:*:wordpress:*:*

References for CVE-2020-36728

cvelogic Threat Intelligence