CVE-2026-1928: Rank Math SEO PHP object injection vulnerability
high 8.8 published 2026-10-28 · updated 2026-10-29
- Affected versions
- 1.0.276 and older
- Fixed in
- 1.0.277 *
- Latest version
- 1.0.280
- Severity
- High · CVSS 8.8
- Active installs
- 4+ million
- Type
- PHP object injection
* 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: A logged-in account with Contributor-level access or higher.
CVSS vector (score by Wordfence): CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
What to do now
- Update Rank Math SEO to 1.0.277 or newer (the latest is 1.0.280): 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 Rank Math SEO issue.
With WP-CLI:
wp plugin get seo-by-rank-math --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 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to PHP Object Injection in all versions up to, and including, 1.0.276 via deserialization of untrusted input in the updateMeta REST API endpoint. This makes it possible forauthenticated attackers, with Contributor-level access and above, to inject a PHP Object. The additional presence of a POP chain allows attackers to achieve remote code execution by writing a webshell to the uploads directory.
References
- NVD CVE-2026-1928 nvd.nist.gov
- Wordfence advisory www.wordfence.com
- Code change (fix) plugins.trac.wordpress.org
- Plugin source plugins.trac.wordpress.org
Related
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/seo-by-rank-math (Plugins API), fetched 2026-11-01.
- 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.