Skip to main content

Seraphinite Accelerator EUVDEUVD-2026-80207

| CVE-2026-87828 MEDIUM
Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400)
2026-09-16 WPScan GHSA-pwq8-qxp8-42qc
5.7
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: WPScan
View

Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain

  1. Access
    Obtain low-priv Subscriber account
  2. Delivery
    Send crafted AJAX state-update request
  3. Exploit
    Bypass missing capability check writes malformed value
  4. Execution
    Uncaught error fires on admin page load
  5. Impact
    Entire wp-admin inaccessible to all admins

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A06:2025 - Insecure Design
ASVS 5.0
V2 - Validation and Business Logic Resource consumption limits
MITRE ATT&CK

1 technique across 1 tactic: Impact

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 low-privilege account (Subscriber-level, per PR:L) - realistically obtainable only on sites with open user registration enabled, or by any existing low-privilege user. The Seraphinite Accelerator plugin must be installed and running at a version before 2.29.24, and the vulnerable state-update AJAX action must be reachable (default plugin behavior). The DoS manifests when an administrator subsequently loads any wp-admin page - this is routine and effectively guaranteed rather than a meaningful attacker-controlled prerequisite. Limiting factors: an attacker must have (or be able to create) at least a Subscriber account, so sites that disable public registration and have no untrusted low-priv users are not exposed; impact is confined to the admin area (public site stays online) and is recoverable by resetting the malformed plugin state.

Impact

This is a moderate, security-team-actionable but not emergency-priority issue. The CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H) describes a network-reachable, low-complexity denial of service that requires only low authenticated privilege (PR:L) - critically, a Subscriber, which is a self-registerable role on any WordPress site with open registration. The impact is availability-only (C:N/I:N); no data is read or altered. EPSS is low at 0.17% (7th percentile) and it is NOT on the CISA KEV list, so there is no evidence of widespread automated exploitation. However, a public exploit exists (WPScan), lowering the effort barrier, and the outcome - locking every administrator out of wp-admin - is operationally severe and disruptive, which justifies prompt patching. One signal to reconcile: the vendor vector sets A:H (full availability loss), but the flaw only bricks the admin area while the public-facing site keeps serving, so A:H is defensible only if you treat administrative control loss as total. Also note UI:R in the vendor vector: the 'interaction' is merely an admin loading any admin page, which happens routinely - so this is effectively self-triggering and UI:R understates realistic exploitability (see assessed vector, where I use UI:N).

Exploit ScenarioDerived

An attacker registers or obtains a low-privilege Subscriber account on a target WordPress site, then sends a single crafted AJAX request to the vulnerable state-update action, which lacks a capability check, writing a malformed value into plugin state. The next time any administrator loads a wp-admin page, an uncaught error fires and the entire admin area becomes inaccessible to all administrators. A public proof-of-concept is available via WPScan, so the technical barrier is low.

This Month Plan within 30 days. Why: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9).
Patch available 0.2% exploitation probability (EPSS)

Get an e-mail when this CVE is exploited, patched or re-scored. Free account.

Alert me

AnalysisAIv1 – Sep 17, 2026

Denial of service in the Seraphinite Accelerator WordPress plugin (all versions before 2.29.24) lets any authenticated low-privilege account - a Subscriber, for instance - invoke a state-update AJAX action that performs no capability check and plant a malformed value, which triggers an uncaught error on every subsequent wp-admin page load and locks all administrators out of the dashboard. The public-facing site remains online and the condition is reversible by clearing the corrupted plugin state, but administrators lose access to their own admin area for as long as it persists. Publicly available exploit code exists, EPSS is low at 0.17% (7th percentile), and there is no CISA KEV confirmation of active exploitation; this is a moderate, security-team-actionable but not emergency-priority issue.

RemediationAI

Vendor-released patch: update Seraphinite Accelerator to 2.29.24 or later - this is the primary and only complete fix, and it is available from the vendor. Where an immediate update is not possible, the most reliable compensating control is to deactivate the plugin entirely, with the trade-off that the site loses caching and front-end optimization and will likely see slower page performance until the plugin is reinstated; because the flaw lives in the plugin's own AJAX handler, no in-plugin setting neutralizes it. A narrower alternative is to block unauthenticated or low-privilege requests to admin-ajax.php that carry the plugin's vulnerable state-update action parameter, via a WAF or reverse-proxy rule, accepting the risk of false positives that could break legitimate admin-side plugin operations. Because the attack requires at least a Subscriber-level account, reducing the attack surface by disabling open user registration and auditing or removing untrusted low-privilege accounts materially lowers exposure on sites that cannot patch immediately. If the admin area is already locked out, restore access by clearing or resetting the plugin's stored options/state (for example through WP-CLI or direct database access), noting that this will also reset the plugin's configuration and may require re-tuning its settings; review the WPScan advisory at https://wpscan.com/vulnerability/ce546b34-4383-4166-9b87-335a524f37e2/ and the NVD record at https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-87828 for the fixed version and current exploit detail.

Affected VersionsENISA

Seraphinite Accelerator 0 <2.29.24

Affected Packages

euvd seraphinite_accelerator fix: 2.29.24

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

Seraphinite Accelerator is a WordPress caching/performance-optimization plugin whose settings and cached state are stored as WordPress options and updated through admin-ajax.php handlers. The vulnerable handler is a state-update AJAX action that, per the WPScan report, is missing a current_user_can() capability check (WordPress best practice would require manage_options or an equivalent administrator-level capability). Because the handler is registered for authenticated users generally, any logged-in account - including a Subscriber - can reach it and persist an arbitrary, malformed value into plugin state. The assigned CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption) captures the resulting effect class: rather than stealing data or executing code, the malformed value poisons plugin initialization, which then throws an uncaught error during every wp-admin render, consuming the admin UI path entirely and producing a persistent denial of service scoped to the WordPress administrative back end. The CPE record is cpe:2.3:a:unknown:seraphinite_accelerator:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* - the vendor field is unrecorded and the version is a wildcard, so version scoping must be taken from the EUVD range (0 <2.29.24) and the vendor advisory rather than from CPE matching. Note that the supplier CVSS vector lists UI:R while our independent assessment treats the trigger as requiring no meaningful victim interaction (UI:N): the DoS materializes on an administrator's routine page load, which is guaranteed rather than attacker-influenced.

Know when Seraphinite Accelerator gets its next vulnerability

  • Watch products and get an email when something new is published
  • Check this CVE against your own stack and servers
  • Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources

No credit card · 7-day full trial

Severity by source

Vendor (WPScan) PRIMARY 5.7 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
vuln.today AI 6.5 MEDIUM

Network-reachable AJAX action, low complexity, Subscriber auth so PR:L; DoS self-triggers on routine admin navigation so UI:N; availability-only impact (admin lockout) A:H, C/I:N.

3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
4.0 AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Primary rating from Vendor (WPScan).

CVSS VectorVendor: WPScan

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

4
CVSS changed
Sep 17, 2026 - 13:22 NVD
5.7 (MEDIUM)
Patch available
Sep 16, 2026 - 07:01 EUVD
CVE Published
Sep 16, 2026 - 06:00 cve.org
UNKNOWN (no severity yet)
CVE Published
Sep 16, 2026 - 06:00 cve.org
MEDIUM 5.7

DescriptionCVE.org

The Seraphinite Accelerator WordPress plugin before 2.29.24 does not perform a capability check on one of its state-update AJAX actions, allowing authenticated users such as subscribers to write a malformed value that causes an uncaught error on every subsequent admin page load, making the entire admin area inaccessible to all administrators (denial of service).

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.2%
Top 93% exploitable
Prevalence
Medium
popular WordPress performance/caching plugin, common but not universal
Exploit
POC
Public exploit code exists
Data Quality
4 sources
Confidence: Medium

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.

SignalValue
Severity MEDIUM
CISA KEV No
Public POC Yes
EPSS 0.2%
Patch available Yes
Active threat No
Deciding rule
MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9)
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision· derived
Scheduled
Exploitation· derived
Poc
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable· derived
No
Human Impact· derived
Medium

Priority Score

48
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +28
PoC: +20
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

Denial of Service attacks render applications or systems unavailable by overwhelming resources or triggering failure conditions.

This site uses cookies essential for authentication and security. No tracking or analytics cookies are used. Privacy Policy