CVE-2016-6897

MEDIUM

WordPress < 4.5.5 - Cross-Site Request Forgery via Late check_ajax_referer Call

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Exploitation Summary

EIP tracks 2 public exploits for CVE-2016-6897. PoCs published by Yorick Koster, Yorick Koster, CryptisStudents, including Metasploit module auxiliary/dos/http/wordpress_directory_traversal_dos.

AI-analyzed exploit summary The exploit demonstrates a path traversal vulnerability in WordPress Core Ajax handlers, specifically in the wp_ajax_update_plugin() function. It allows an authenticated user (Subscriber) to trigger a denial of service (DoS) by exhausting the entropy pool via repeated reads from /dev/random.

Description

Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the wp_ajax_update_plugin function in wp-admin/includes/ajax-actions.php in WordPress before 4.6 allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of subscribers for /dev/random read operations by leveraging a late call to the check_ajax_referer function, a related issue to CVE-2016-6896.

Exploits (2)

exploitdb WORKING POC VERIFIED
by Yorick Koster · textwebappsphp
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/40288

The exploit demonstrates a path traversal vulnerability in WordPress Core Ajax handlers, specifically in the wp_ajax_update_plugin() function. It allows an authenticated user (Subscriber) to trigger a denial of service (DoS) by exhausting the entropy pool via repeated reads from /dev/random.

Classification
Working Poc 100%
Attack Type
Dos
Complexity
Trivial
Reliability
Reliable
Target: WordPress 4.5.3
Auth required
Prerequisites: Authenticated user (Subscriber) credentials · Access to wp-admin/admin-ajax.php
devstral-2 · analyzed Feb 16, 2026 Full analysis →
metasploit WORKING POC
by Yorick Koster, CryptisStudents · rubypoc
https://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/blob/master/modules/auxiliary/dos/http/wordpress_directory_traversal_dos.rb

This Metasploit module exploits a CSRF vulnerability in WordPress before 4.6, allowing authenticated attackers to trigger a DoS by sending multiple requests to read /dev/random via path traversal in the update-plugin action.

Classification
Working Poc 100%
Attack Type
Dos
Complexity
Moderate
Reliability
Reliable
Target: WordPress < 4.6
Auth required
Prerequisites: Valid WordPress username and password · WordPress installation vulnerable to CVE-2016-6897
devstral-2 · analyzed Jun 05, 2026 Full analysis →

References (7)

Core 7
Core References
Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry vdb-entry x_refsource_bid
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/92572
Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry vdb-entry x_refsource_sectrack
http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1036683
Exploit, Third Party Advisory exploit x_refsource_exploit-db
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/40288/
Mailing List mailing-list x_refsource_mlist
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/08/20/1
Third Party Advisory x_refsource_misc
https://wpvulndb.com/vulnerabilities/8606

Scores

CVSS v3 6.5
EPSS 0.2826
EPSS Percentile 97.9%
Attack Vector NETWORK
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

Details

CWE
CWE-352
Status published
Products (1)
wordpress/wordpress < 4.5.5
Published Jan 18, 2017
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026