CVE-2026-76012: Photo Gallery arbitrary file upload vulnerability
high 7.5 published 2026-10-30
- Affected versions
- 4.4.1 and older
- Fixed in
- 4.5.0 *
- Latest version
- 4.5.5
- Severity
- High · CVSS 7.5
- Active installs
- 300,000+
- Type
- Arbitrary file upload
* 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 Custom-level access or higher.
CVSS vector (score by Wordfence): CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
What to do now
- Update Photo Gallery to 4.5.0 or newer (the latest is 4.5.5): 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 Photo Gallery issue.
With WP-CLI:
wp plugin get nextgen-gallery --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 Photo Gallery, Sliders, Proofing and Themes – NextGEN Gallery plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Remote Code Execution in all versions up to, and including, 4.4.1 via the legacy_render function. This is due to broken authorization on the Lightroom gallery_edit endpoint combined with mass assignment of gallery path and unrestricted file upload into a registered template directory, whose extension check uses a substring match that accepts sanitized .php_ filenames as valid templates. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with custom-level access and above, to execute code on the server. Exploitation requires the authenticated attacker to be the stored author of at least one existing NextGEN gallery, as ownership of that gallery is the sole authorization check gating the mass-assignment and upload steps.
References
- NVD CVE-2026-76012 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
The free scan reads the public side of your site and looks for spam pages, hidden redirects, injected scripts and blacklist entries. No login, no install, about a minute.
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/nextgen-gallery (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.