CVE-2026-85655: Enable Media Replace missing authorization check vulnerability
medium 4.3 published 2026-10-28 · updated 2026-10-29
- Affected versions
- 4.2.2 and older
- Fixed in
- 4.2.3 *
- Latest version
- 4.2.3
- Severity
- Medium · CVSS 4.3
- Active installs
- 600,000+
- 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:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
What to do now
- Update Enable Media Replace to 4.2.3 or newer: 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 Enable Media Replace issue.
With WP-CLI:
wp plugin get enable-media-replace --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 Enable Media Replace plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to authorization bypass in all versions up to, and including, 4.2.2. This is due to the plugin not properly verifying that a user is authorized to perform an action. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with author-level access and above, to modify the post_content of any published post referencing the replaced media — including Administrator-owned posts — making changes immediately visible to unauthenticated visitors. The doReplaceQuery() method performs a database-wide search-and-replace across all posts containing the old media URL without any per-post capability check, meaning a single Author-triggered request can silently overwrite a large number of posts that WordPress's standard admin UI and REST API would otherwise forbid that user from editing.
References
- NVD CVE-2026-85655 nvd.nist.gov
- Wordfence advisory www.wordfence.com
- github.com github.com
- 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/enable-media-replace (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.