Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
Network-accessible AJAX endpoint requires no authentication; confidentiality impact is low (ad block contents only), with no integrity or availability impact.
Primary rating from Vendor (Wordfence).
CVSS VectorVendor: Wordfence
Lifecycle Timeline
2DescriptionCVE.org
The Ad Inserter - Ad Manager & AdSense Ads plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to authorization bypass in all versions up to, and including, 2.8.16 due to a missing capability check in the ai_ajax function. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to view the contents of ad blocks that an administrator has restricted to administrator-only visibility.
AnalysisAI
Authorization bypass in the Ad Inserter WordPress plugin (all versions through 2.8.16) allows unauthenticated remote attackers to read ad block contents that administrators have restricted to administrator-only visibility, by invoking the unguarded ai_ajax AJAX function. The CVSS vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N) confirms trivial unauthenticated network exploitation with no user interaction required. No public exploit has been identified at time of analysis, but two upstream WordPress plugin repository changesets (3583409, 3567905) indicate a fix has been committed.
Technical ContextAI
The flaw is classified as CWE-862 (Missing Authorization), a common weakness in WordPress plugins where AJAX handler functions omit the required current_user_can() capability check before executing privileged operations. WordPress's AJAX subsystem routes requests through wp-admin/admin-ajax.php, and plugins register handlers via wp_ajax_ (authenticated) or wp_ajax_nopriv_ (unauthenticated) hooks. The ai_ajax function in Ad Inserter apparently accepts requests from either hook path but never validates whether the caller holds administrator privileges, allowing the visibility restriction to be trivially bypassed. The affected product is identified by CPE as cpe:2.3:a:spacetime:ad_inserter_-_ad_manager_&_adsense_ads:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*, developed by Spacetime and distributed through the WordPress plugin repository.
RemediationAI
Update the Ad Inserter plugin to the version published after changesets 3583409 and 3567905 were committed to the WordPress plugin repository (https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3583409 and https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3567905); verify via the WordPress admin plugin dashboard that the installed version post-dates 2.8.16, as the exact fixed release version is not independently confirmed from available data. The Wordfence advisory at https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/b5715acd-62e6-4cd8-8fe8-4b1412f287c9?source=cve should be monitored for a confirmed fixed version number. If immediate patching is not possible, deactivating the Ad Inserter plugin eliminates the attack surface entirely at the cost of ad serving functionality. As a less disruptive alternative, deploying a WAF rule to block unauthenticated POST requests to wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with the ai_ajax action parameter can mitigate exploitation, though this carries risk of interfering with other AJAX-dependent plugin functionality on the same installation.
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Same weakness CWE-862 – Missing Authorization
View allSame technique Authentication Bypass
View allShare
External POC / Exploit Code
Leaving vuln.today
EUVD-2026-53865
GHSA-74q3-73gr-qrvx