CVE-2026-120578: AI Alt Text Generator missing authorization check vulnerability

medium 5.3 published 2026-11-03

Affected versions: 2.7.0 and older
Fixed in: 2.7.1 *
Latest version: 2.7.2
Severity: Medium · CVSS 5.3
Active installs: 2,000+
Type: Missing authorization check

* The source does not name a fixed version; this is the first wordpress.org release after the last affected version.

What an attacker needs

Access: None. No account or login is needed.

CVSS vector (score by Wordfence): CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N

What to do now

Update AI Alt Text Generator to 2.7.1 or newer (the latest is 2.7.2): Dashboard → Updates, or Plugins → “update now”.
If you cannot update right away, deactivate it until you can.
Turn on auto-updates for it: Plugins → “Enable auto-updates” on its row.
Not sure which version you run? Check your version against every known AI Alt Text Generator issue. With WP-CLI: wp plugin get ai-alt-text-generator --field=version.
If you ran an affected version and something looks off (new admin users, spam pages, redirects), run the free scan below.

The advisory

The AI Alt Text Generator plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to authorization bypass in all versions up to, and including, 2.7.0. This is due to the plugin not properly verifying that a user is authorized to perform an action. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to modify the alt text, and optionally the title, caption, and description of arbitrary attachments owned by other users. Exploiting this vulnerability requires a Contributor-level account to retrieve the nonce from the page source of post.php, post-new.php, or upload.php; additionally, overwriting post_title, post_excerpt, and post_content requires the plugin's set_title, set_caption, or set_description options to be enabled.

Description from the CVE record, published by Wordfence (the CVE Numbering Authority), via the NVD entry for CVE-2026-120578.

References

NVD CVE-2026-120578 nvd.nist.gov
Wordfence advisory www.wordfence.com
Code change (fix) plugins.trac.wordpress.org
Plugin source plugins.trac.wordpress.org

Ran an affected version? Check your site for signs of a hack

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Where this data comes from

CVE record, score and references: NIST National Vulnerability Database (NVD), checked 2026-11-04. This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.
Versions and install counts: wordpress.org/plugins/ai-alt-text-generator (Plugins API), fetched 2026-11-04.
The summary, “what an attacker needs” and “what to do” sections are our plain-English reading of the record and the plugin's release history; the quoted description is the record's own text. Spot an error? Email Daniel.