Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessRegister/obtain subscriber account
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DeliveryLoad profile.php to harvest nonce
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ExploitInvoke unprotected content action
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ExecutionOverwrite arbitrary post_content with keyword-steered LLM text
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ImpactSEO manipulation and credit drain
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A01:2025 - Broken Access Control
ASVS 5.0
V8 - Authorization Authorization checks on every request
MITRE ATT&CK
1 technique across 1 tactic: Privilege Escalation The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Exploitation Conditions | Requires an authenticated WordPress account at subscriber level or above (PR:L) on a site running Alt Text AI ≤1.10.41; practically this means the target site allows user registration or the attacker otherwise holds any low-privileged account. No special plugin configuration is needed beyond the plugin being active. The limiting factor is the authentication requirement - anonymous visitors cannot exploit it - but that barrier is weak because the CSRF nonce needed for the action is emitted on /wp-admin/profile.php, a page every Subscriber can access, so any logged-in user can obtain it trivially. No user interaction by a victim and no non-default settings are required. |
| Impact | This is a genuine but low-severity (CVSS 4.3) issue that should be triaged below critical/high findings, not a top-priority emergency. All signals align on limited impact: the CVSS vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N) shows network reach with low complexity but requires authentication (PR:L - subscriber-level) and yields only partial integrity impact with no confidentiality or availability loss. The CWE-862 (Missing Authorization) classification is consistent with the description. There is no KEV listing and no public exploit identified, so exploitation status is 'no public exploit identified at time of analysis.' No EPSS score and no SSVC decision data were provided in the input, so probability-of-exploitation and automatable/technical-impact framework signals cannot be weighed - this is a data gap, not evidence of low risk. The one aggravating detail Wordfence documents is that the required nonce is emitted on /wp-admin/profile.php (reachable by Subscribers), which collapses the practical barrier to exploitation for anyone who already holds a low-privileged account. Net: real and worth patching, especially on sites allowing open/subscriber registration, but the authentication requirement and integrity-only impact keep real-world risk moderate rather than severe. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | On a WordPress site that permits self-service subscriber registration, an attacker registers a low-privileged account, loads /wp-admin/profile.php to harvest the exposed nonce, and invokes the plugin's unprotected action to overwrite the post_content of arbitrary posts or pages with LLM-generated text steered by attacker-chosen keywords. This enables black-hat SEO injection into content the attacker does not own and burns through the site owner's paid AltText.ai API credits. No public exploit code is identified at time of analysis, and the attack requires an authenticated session (PR:L) but no user interaction and only low complexity. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Oct 03, 2026
Authorization bypass in the Alt Text AI WordPress plugin (≤1.10.41) allows any authenticated user with subscriber-level access to overwrite the content of arbitrary posts and pages with LLM-generated text, enabling SEO poisoning and unauthorized consumption of the site owner's AltText.ai API credits. The vulnerability is a low-severity (CVSS 4.3) missing authorization check (CWE-862) that is exploitable because the required nonce is trivially obtainable on the subscriber-accessible profile page. No public exploit has been identified at time of analysis, and the vendor has published a code changeset that appears to remediate the issue.
RemediationAI
Apply the vendor's code changeset (referenced) or update to the latest version of the plugin; as of analysis, no tagged release version has been confirmed to contain the fix, but the changeset at https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?reponame=&old=3723468%40alttext-ai&new=3723468%40alttext-ai addresses the missing authorization. If an update is not immediately possible, consider deactivating the plugin as the only reliable mitigation, especially on sites that allow public user registration-accepting the loss of automatic alt-text functionality. Alternatively, restrict user registration and audit existing Subscriber accounts; however, any authenticated low-privileged user can still exploit the flaw if registration is open. Monitor for unexpected changes to post content and unusual AltText.ai API credit consumption as a detection measure. Refer to the Wordfence advisory at https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/216e3087-52f1-4b2e-a31c-0c2ddf41aefb?source=cve for updates.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in euvd
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
The Alt Text AI plugin for WordPress integrates with the AltText.ai API to automatically generate alt text for images. The vulnerability is a CWE-862 Missing Authorization error in the plugin's AJAX action handler (class-atai-post.php) that processes requests to generate and insert alt text into post content. While the action is protected by a WordPress nonce, nonces are intended for CSRF protection, not access control. The nonce is emitted on all admin pages, including /wp-admin/profile.php, which is accessible to users with the Subscriber role. Consequently, any authenticated user can obtain the nonce and invoke the action without the plugin verifying that the user has the capability to edit the target post (e.g., current_user_can('edit_post')). The CPE (cpe:2.3:a:alttextai:alt_text_ai_-_automatically_generate_image_alt_text_for_seo_and_accessibility:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*) confirms all versions are affected. The plugin's admin class-atai-admin.php line 75 and class-atai.php line 271 are referenced in the advisory, highlighting the nonce generation and action registration.
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
Authenticated subscriber-level access is required so PR:L (not PR:N); exploitation is remote and low-complexity; impact is limited to unauthorized post-content modification, giving I:L with no confidentiality or availability loss.
Primary rating from Vendor (Wordfence).
CVSS VectorVendor: Wordfence
DescriptionCVE.org
The Alt Text AI - Automatically generate image alt text for SEO and accessibility plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to authorization bypass in all versions up to, and including, 1.10.41. 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 subscriber-level access and above, to overwrite the post_content of any post or page on the site - including content they do not own - with LLM-generated text influenced by attacker-controlled keywords, enabling black-hat SEO manipulation and unauthorized consumption of the site owner's paid AltText.ai API credits. The nonce required to invoke the action is emitted on every admin page including /wp-admin/profile.php, which is accessible to Subscribers, making the nonce trivially obtainable by any authenticated user.
Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Authentication bypass attacks exploit flaws in the verification mechanisms that control access to systems and applications.
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EUVD-2026-91918
GHSA-7xvf-jr7g-ffgw
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
Exploit-DB