CVE-2013-0235

WordPress < 3.5.1 - Server-Side Request Forgery via XMLRPC Pingback

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Exploitation Summary

EIP tracks 1 public exploit for CVE-2013-0235. PoCs published by Thomas McCarthy, including Metasploit module auxiliary/scanner/http/wordpress_pingback_access.

AI-analyzed exploit summary This Metasploit module scans WordPress sites for enabled Pingback APIs, which can be abused to perform port scanning via the XML-RPC interface. It checks for the presence of the X-Pingback header and verifies if the Pingback functionality is active.

Description

The XMLRPC API in WordPress before 3.5.1 allows remote attackers to send HTTP requests to intranet servers, and conduct port-scanning attacks, by specifying a crafted source URL for a pingback, related to a Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) issue.

Exploits (1)

metasploit SCANNER
by Thomas McCarthy · rubypoc
https://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/blob/master/modules/auxiliary/scanner/http/wordpress_pingback_access.rb

This Metasploit module scans WordPress sites for enabled Pingback APIs, which can be abused to perform port scanning via the XML-RPC interface. It checks for the presence of the X-Pingback header and verifies if the Pingback functionality is active.

Classification
Scanner 100%
Attack Type
Ssrf
Complexity
Moderate
Reliability
Reliable
Target: WordPress (versions prior to 3.5.1)
No auth needed
Prerequisites: WordPress site with exposed XML-RPC interface · Pingback API enabled
devstral-2 · analyzed Feb 16, 2026 Full analysis →

References (5)

Core 5
Core References
Product x_refsource_confirm
http://codex.wordpress.org/Version_3.5.1
Exploit, Patch x_refsource_confirm
http://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/23330
Issue Tracking x_refsource_confirm
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=904120

Scores

EPSS 0.2886
EPSS Percentile 97.9%

Details

Status published
Products (49)
wordpress/wordpress 0.71
wordpress/wordpress 1.0
wordpress/wordpress 1.0.1
wordpress/wordpress 1.0.2
wordpress/wordpress 1.1.1
wordpress/wordpress 1.2
wordpress/wordpress 1.2.1
wordpress/wordpress 1.2.2
wordpress/wordpress 1.2.3
wordpress/wordpress 1.2.4
... and 39 more
Published Jul 08, 2013
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026