Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessObtain Subscriber-level account on target WordPress site
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DeliverySend crafted POST with submit and metasync_post_types params
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Exploitadmin_init fires save_instant_indexing_settings without cap/nonce check
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Executionupdate_option overwrites metasync_options_instant_indexing
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ImpactAttacker-controlled Instant Indexing post-type config
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 account at Subscriber level or above on a WordPress site running the Metasync (Search Atlas SEO - Otto AI) plugin version 2.6.23 or earlier; the save_instant_indexing_settings() function must be reachable via the admin_init hook (default plugin behavior). The only request precondition is presence of $_POST['submit'] alongside the attacker-supplied $_POST['metasync_post_types']; no nonce and no capability are validated. Limiting factors: exploitation is confined to modifying the Instant Indexing post-type configuration (integrity-only, no data disclosure or DoS), and it requires a valid low-privilege login, so sites that disallow open user registration substantially reduce exposure. |
| Impact | This is a genuine-but-low-severity authorization flaw, consistent with its 4.3 CVSS. The vector CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N shows network-reachable, low-complexity exploitation requiring only Subscriber-level authentication (PR:L), with impact confined to integrity (I:L) and no confidentiality or availability loss. No EPSS score, KEV listing, or public POC is present in the provided data, so there is no evidence of active or automated exploitation; treat exploitation status as 'no public exploit identified at time of analysis.' The realistic ceiling is low: an attacker can only alter which post types the site auto-submits to Google's Instant Indexing service - a nuisance/SEO-tampering integrity issue, not data theft or takeover. Note that the 'Authentication Bypass' tag conflicts with the actual weakness: CWE-862 (missing authorization) plus a PR:L vector describe a broken-access-control issue for an already-authenticated low-privilege user, NOT an authentication bypass. Prioritize patching but this is not a drop-everything emergency. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker who has (or self-registers for) a Subscriber account on a WordPress site running Metasync <=2.6.23 sends a crafted POST request containing 'submit' and a chosen 'metasync_post_types' value to an admin_init-hooked endpoint. Because the handler performs no capability or nonce check, the site-wide 'metasync_options_instant_indexing' option is overwritten, letting the attacker control which post types are auto-submitted to Google Instant Indexing. No public exploit code is identified, and exploitation is limited to integrity impact on SEO/indexing configuration. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Sep 19, 2026
Missing authorization and nonce checks in the Metasync plugin (distributed as Search Atlas SEO - Otto AI SEO Automation for WordPress) up to and including version 2.6.23 allow any authenticated user with Subscriber-level access or higher to overwrite the site-wide 'metasync_options_instant_indexing' option. Because save_instant_indexing_settings() is hooked to admin_init and only tests for the presence of $_POST['submit'], an attacker with a low-privilege login can silently change which post types are auto-submitted to Google's Instant Indexing service; no public exploit code has been identified at time of analysis, no CISA KEV entry applies, and the impact is integrity-only (CVSS 4.3, I:L) with no data disclosure or denial of service.
RemediationAI
Upstream fix available (PR/commit); released patched version not independently confirmed - a corrective changeset is published at https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3676919, so the primary action is to update Metasync to a release containing that changeset (anything newer than 2.6.23) as soon as it is offered, and to verify the installed version rather than relying on the wildcard CPE. Because the issue is reachable by any Subscriber-level account, the highest-value compensating control is to close the low-privilege entry point: disable open user registration (Settings > General > Membership), audit and remove unnecessary Subscriber accounts, and restrict who can authenticate to wp-admin - the trade-off is loss of self-service signups and added account-management overhead. Alternatively or additionally, block or challenge POST requests to admin pages carrying metasync_post_types from low-privilege roles at the WAF or reverse-proxy layer, accepting the risk of false positives on legitimate administrator submissions. Sites that do not use Google Instant Indexing submission should disable that feature entirely, which removes the attacker's payoff at the cost of losing automatic indexing. Finally, inspect the metasync_options_instant_indexing option for unexpected post-type entries as a detection and clean-up measure, since changes to this setting do not generate a native WordPress audit trail and the plugin's own logs should not be relied upon.
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 flaw is an instance of CWE-862 (Missing Authorization) in the WordPress plugin Metasync, marketed as Search Atlas SEO - Otto AI SEO Automation for WordPress (CPE: cpe:2.3:a:shahrukhlinkgraph:search_atlas_seo_-_otto_ai_seo_automation_for_wordpress). The vulnerable routine, save_instant_indexing_settings(), lives in admin/class-metasync-admin.php and is registered on the admin_init hook, meaning it executes on administrative-page bootstrap requests rather than only on a dedicated settings form submission. The function checks solely that $_POST['submit'] is set, then passes attacker-controlled $_POST['metasync_post_types'] directly into update_option() for the 'metasync_options_instant_indexing' option. It performs neither a current_user_can() / current_user_has_plugin_access() capability check nor a check_admin_referer()/nonce verification, so WordPress's normal CSRF and role-based guards never come into play. The referenced source lines (class-metasync-admin.php L384, L6358 and L6364 in tags 2.6.16 and 2.6.17) document the registration, the submit check, and the option write. The stored option governs which WordPress post types the plugin automatically pushes to Google's Instant Indexing API, so tampering with it changes indexing/submission behavior rather than exposing or destroying data.
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
Network-reachable handler exploitable by any authenticated Subscriber (PR:L) with no user interaction; impact limited to overwriting an SEO config option, so I:L and C/A:N.
Primary rating from Vendor (Wordfence).
CVSS VectorVendor: Wordfence
DescriptionCVE.org
The Metasync plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized modification of data due to a missing capability check on the save_instant_indexing_settings() function in versions up to, and including, 2.6.23. This function is registered on the admin_init hook and only checks for the presence of $_POST['submit'] before writing attacker-supplied $_POST['metasync_post_types'] into the site-wide 'metasync_options_instant_indexing' option via update_option(); no current_user_can()/current_user_has_plugin_access() check and no nonce verification are performed. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to modify the site's Google Instant Indexing post-type configuration, controlling which post types are auto-submitted to Google's Instant Indexing service.
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
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EUVD-2026-83572
GHSA-vpqr-9v4h-mgff
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
Exploit-DB