CVE-2026-86827: BackWPup missing authorization check vulnerability

medium 5.3 published 2026-10-08

Affected versions: 3.3 up to (not including) 5.7.7
Fixed in: 5.7.7
Latest version: 5.7.8
Severity: Medium · CVSS 5.3
Active installs: 400,000+
Type: Missing authorization check

What an attacker needs

Access: None. No account or login is needed.

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

What to do now

Update BackWPup to 5.7.7 or newer (the latest is 5.7.8): 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 BackWPup issue. With WP-CLI: wp plugin get backwpup --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 BackWPup WordPress plugin before 5.7.7 does not verify that a request to its cron-triggered backup execution handler actually originates from WordPress's internal scheduled-event dispatch, allowing unauthenticated attackers to force any existing backup job to run immediately, independent of its configured trigger type or schedule.

Description from the CVE record, published by WPScan (the CVE Numbering Authority), via the NVD entry for CVE-2026-86827.

References

NVD CVE-2026-86827 nvd.nist.gov
WPScan advisory wpscan.com

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/backwpup (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.