Security advisory

{
  "id": "fd73a52d2869286cb0a485dbf8e1aae5887bd01a389b80e8f0313e92790ea916",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2016-6896",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "CVE-2016-6896",
    "summary": "Directory traversal vulnerability in the wp_ajax_update_plugin function in wp-admin/includes/ajax-actions.php in WordPress 4.5.3 allows remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service or read certain text files via a .. (dot dot) in the plugin parameter to wp-admin/admin-ajax.php, as demonstrated by /dev/random read operations that deplete the entropy pool.",
    "evidence": "osv:CVE-2016-6896",
    "products": [],
    "severity": "high",
    "structured": {
      "id": "CVE-2016-6896",
      "aliases": [
        "CVE-2016-6896"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V3",
          "score": "CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:H"
        }
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "repo": "https://github.com/wordpress/wordpress",
              "type": "GIT",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "1e3dcd8b0d1b07bc7e4ddfe063838dc21772e451"
                },
                {
                  "last_affected": "1e3dcd8b0d1b07bc7e4ddfe063838dc21772e451"
                }
              ],
              "database_specific": {
                "extracted_events": [
                  {
                    "cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:wordpress:wordpress:4.5.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "introduced": "4.5.3"
                      },
                      {
                        "last_affected": "4.5.3"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "CPE_STRING"
                  }
                ]
              }
            }
          ],
          "versions": [
            "4.5.3"
          ],
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2016-6896.json"
          }
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "repo": "https://github.com/wordpress/wordpress-develop",
              "type": "GIT",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "ba2edc67c9a31d2da0ec47b9c08880b400734e10"
                },
                {
                  "last_affected": "ba2edc67c9a31d2da0ec47b9c08880b400734e10"
                }
              ],
              "database_specific": {
                "extracted_events": [
                  {
                    "cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:wordpress:wordpress:4.5.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "introduced": "4.5.3"
                      },
                      {
                        "last_affected": "4.5.3"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "CPE_STRING"
                  }
                ]
              }
            }
          ],
          "versions": [
            "4.5.3"
          ],
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2016-6896.json"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-24T10:30:34.449760469Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "references": [
        "https://wpvulndb.com/vulnerabilities/8606",
        "https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/40288/",
        "https://sumofpwn.nl/advisory/2016/path_traversal_vulnerability_in_wordpress_core_ajax_handlers.html"
      ],
      "provider_metadata": {}
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2016-6896",
        "evidence": "/id"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 433514,
  "published_at": "2017-01-18T21:59:00.277+00:00"
}