{"id":"CVE-2016-6896","details":"Directory traversal vulnerability in the wp_ajax_update_plugin function in wp-admin/includes/ajax-actions.php in WordPress 4.5.3 allows remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service or read certain text files via a .. (dot dot) in the plugin parameter to wp-admin/admin-ajax.php, as demonstrated by /dev/random read operations that deplete the entropy pool.","modified":"2026-07-08T12:44:05.077399Z","published":"2017-01-18T21:59:00.277Z","references":[{"type":"WEB","url":"http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1036683"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://wpvulndb.com/vulnerabilities/8606"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/40288/"},{"type":"ADVISORY","url":"http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/08/20/1"},{"type":"EVIDENCE","url":"https://sumofpwn.nl/advisory/2016/path_traversal_vulnerability_in_wordpress_core_ajax_handlers.html"}],"affected":[{"ranges":[{"type":"GIT","repo":"https://github.com/wordpress/wordpress","events":[{"introduced":"1e3dcd8b0d1b07bc7e4ddfe063838dc21772e451"},{"last_affected":"1e3dcd8b0d1b07bc7e4ddfe063838dc21772e451"}],"database_specific":{"source":"CPE_STRING","extracted_events":[{"introduced":"4.5.3"},{"last_affected":"4.5.3"}],"cpe":"cpe:2.3:a:wordpress:wordpress:4.5.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*"}}],"versions":["4.5.3"],"database_specific":{"source":"https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2016-6896.json"}},{"ranges":[{"type":"GIT","repo":"https://github.com/wordpress/wordpress-develop","events":[{"introduced":"ba2edc67c9a31d2da0ec47b9c08880b400734e10"},{"last_affected":"ba2edc67c9a31d2da0ec47b9c08880b400734e10"}],"database_specific":{"source":"CPE_STRING","extracted_events":[{"introduced":"4.5.3"},{"last_affected":"4.5.3"}],"cpe":"cpe:2.3:a:wordpress:wordpress:4.5.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*"}}],"versions":["4.5.3"],"database_specific":{"source":"https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2016-6896.json"}}],"schema_version":"1.7.5","severity":[{"type":"CVSS_V3","score":"CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:H"}]}