The Enable Media Replace plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to authorization bypass in all versions up to, and including, 4.2.2.
CVE-2026-85655
The Enable Media Replace plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to authorization bypass in all versions up to, and including, 4.2.2. 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 author-level access and above, to modify the postcontent of any published post referencing the replaced media — including Administrator-owned posts — making changes immediately visible to unauthenticated visitors. The doReplaceQuery() method performs a database-wide search-and-replace across all posts containing the old media URL without any per-post capability check, meaning a single Author-triggered request can silently overwrite a large number of posts that WordPress's standard admin UI and REST API would otherwise forbid that user from editing.
Assessment
- CVSS
- 4.3 (v3.1)
- Severity
- Medium
- Known exploited
- Not listed in CISA KEV
- Exploit availability
- Nothing found in Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei or public PoC repositories
- Published
- 28 October 2026
- Last updated
- 29 October 2026
- Weakness
- CWE-862
- Assigner
- security@wordfence.com
CVSS vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
At the source
References
- https://github.com/short-pixel-optimizer/enable-media-replace/releases/tag/v4.2.3
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/enable-media-replace/tags/4.1.9/build/shortpixel/replacer/src/Replacer.php#L250
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/enable-media-replace/tags/4.1.9/classes/Controller/ReplaceController.php#L253
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/enable-media-replace/tags/4.1.9/classes/ViewController/UploadViewController.php#L59
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/enable-media-replace/tags/4.1.9/classes/ViewController/UploadViewController.php#L66
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/enable-media-replace/tags/4.2.2/build/shortpixel/replacer/src/Replacer.php#L250
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/enable-media-replace/tags/4.2.2/classes/Controller/ReplaceController.php#L253
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/enable-media-replace/tags/4.2.2/classes/ViewController/UploadViewController.php#L59
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/enable-media-replace/tags/4.2.2/classes/ViewController/UploadViewController.php#L66
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/aff42473-63c6-41ca-8312-058f213e2302?source=cve
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