Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg says he is back in control of the company 48 hours after the board placed him on leave.
Automattic co-founder Matt Mullenweg announced in a company-wide Slack channel that the board is back in agreement and he is in control, less than 48 hours after announcing he had been placed on leave. CFO Mark Davies, who was set to act as interim CEO, had his Slack account deactivated. The board has communicated nothing beyond Wednesday's Slack message, and Mullenweg's follow-up blog post addressed buying a tugboat, not the leadership confusion.
SecurityWeek weekly roundup covers exploited WordPress Super Forms flaw CVE-2026-14894, a $10M bounty on an Iranian cyber official, InjectEave attacks, and more.
SecurityWeek's weekly roundup aggregates short items across the threat landscape, including Microsoft's report of invisible Unicode tag characters used in financial phishing lures at up to 2.37 million messages per day, and active exploitation of critical WordPress Super Forms plugin flaw CVE-2026-14894 to deploy PHP webshells. Policy items include a $10 million US bounty for IRGC-CEC Cyber Operations Command lead Amir Yaryab, a 16-month prison sentence for ex-AT&T employee Kenneth Carter over SIM swaps with nearly $600,000 in intended losses, and the US arraignment of Russian Sergei Anatolyevich Filimonov over credential harvesting. Technical items include InjectEave electromagnetic side-channel attacks tested on 11 devices, an FBI warning on OAuth consent phishing, and VulnCheck's finding that only 202 of 26,153 Anthropic Project Glasswing findings were fixed.
WordPress.org now runs AI-powered automated security reviews on every plugin release, automatically blocking high-risk updates before distribution to millions of sites.
WordPress launched an automated security review that combines multiple AI models and Jetpack Scan during a six-hour cooldown to score each plugin release; updates above the blocking threshold are automatically held back from the WordPress.org update API. The change follows a July 28 incident where a backdoor added to a plugin with roughly 20,000 active installations was detected during cooldown and never delivered; the Plugins Team removed it 26 minutes after a Wordfence notification. Blocked developers receive an email with findings and are advised to publish a corrected version rather than await manual appeal.
WordPress.org now automatically security-reviews every plugin release and blocks high-risk updates before distribution to millions of sites.
The WordPress Official Plugin Repository Team launched an automated security review that scores each plugin and theme release during a six-hour cooldown, combining analysis from several AI models and Jetpack Scan, and automatically blocks releases deemed high risk. The change followed a July 28 detection of a backdoor committed to a release of a plugin with roughly 20,000 active installations; the release was withheld and the plugin closed for downloads 26 minutes after Wordfence notified the team. Blocked authors must fix findings and publish a new release scoring below the blocking threshold, or appeal to the Plugins Team.
Automattic's board voted to place CEO Matt Mullenweg on paid leave against his will, naming CFO Mark Davies interim CEO of WordPress's parent company.
Automattic's board voted to put founder and CEO Matt Mullenweg on paid leave against his will, with CFO Mark Davies appointed interim CEO; Mullenweg remains on the board. The move follows years of turmoil, including a protracted legal battle with WP Engine, a 2024 ultimatum in which 159 employees took severance, and a 16% staff layoff in April 2025. WordPress.org's executive director said the open-source WordPress project and its teams continue as planned and are not impacted. Automattic also owns Tumblr, WooCommerce, and Pocket Casts.
Automattic's board placed CEO Matt Mullenweg on paid leave of absence, naming CFO Mark Davies interim CEO of the WordPress and Tumblr owner.
Automattic board members voted to put founder and CEO Matt Mullenweg on paid leave of absence, with CFO Mark Davies appointed interim CEO. Mullenweg claims the move was made 'behind his back' and that he was denied time to have the resolution reviewed by independent legal counsel. The company owns WordPress, Tumblr and Pocket Casts, and Mullenweg has been engaged in a divisive legal battle with WP Engine. Davies told employees nothing will change and that Mullenweg remains a board member.
Sucuri's guide breaks WordPress security plugins into hardening, malware scanning, integrity monitoring, and filtering types, and explains how to evaluate and layer them.
The Sucuri guide explains that WordPress security plugins bundle five capabilities - hardening, malware detection, integrity monitoring, activity logging, and application-level filtering - and that plugins run only after WordPress loads, unlike server-level firewalls. It lists leading causes of compromise: outdated plugins and themes, weak or reused credentials, nulled premium software, insecure configuration, and shared-hosting cross-contamination. It concludes with evaluation criteria and a post-installation security checklist for owners without dedicated security teams.
Hackers breached the Stripe-WooCommerce integrations of Russian fundraisers Davayte and You Are Not Alone, exposing donor emails and partial card details.
Unknown hackers accessed the payment accounts of two Russian fundraising projects, Davayte and You Are Not Alone, in mid-August via a shared Stripe-WooCommerce integration used to run online auctions. Exposed data included donor email addresses and, in some cases, the last four digits of payment cards and issuing bank names; full card numbers, cardholder names, and donation details were not taken. Stripe blocked the unauthorized access before the entire donor email database could be downloaded and found no evidence of fraudulent transactions. Attribution remains unclear, with organizers unable to rule out Russian security services; both groups are designated 'undesirable' organizations in Russia, making donor identities sensitive, and a separate alleged leak of data from 669 Stripe merchants by a hacker named 'Satanic' has no confirmed connection.
Sucuri's monthly roundup compiles August 2026 security patches for the WordPress ecosystem to help site owners prioritize updates against automated exploitation.
Sucuri published its August 2026 Vulnerability & Patch Roundup summarizing essential security updates across the WordPress ecosystem. The post notes that most breaches the company observes begin with automated attacks exploiting previously disclosed vulnerabilities. It urges website operators to apply the listed plugin and theme patches promptly to avoid compromise and costly remediation. No specific CVE identifiers are named in the announcement.
A judge banned a plaintiff from electronic court filings after hidden prompt-injection text was discovered planted in legal documents.
Bruce Schneier's blog discusses an incident in which hidden prompt-injection instructions were planted inside a legal filing, apparently targeting AI systems that might process court documents. Judge Walter Spader Jr. responded by banning the plaintiff from electronic filings, requiring all future submissions as printed hard copies. Commenters debate whether the tactic could affect future AI-based processing of court records and whether plain-text formats will regain favor.
Critical unauthenticated PHP object injection (CVE-2026-82222) in the GiveWP WordPress donation plugin chains to remote code execution; version 4.16.7.2 fixes it.
Patchstack disclosed CVE-2026-82222 (CVSS 10.0), an unauthenticated PHP object injection in GiveWP versions through 4.16.7.1 that chains through TCPDF and Give\TestData gadget classes to arbitrary OS command execution as the web server user. On versions 4.16.5.1 and below, a default installation with one published donation form is enough to exploit, with no user interaction required. Version 4.16.7.2 blocks unsafe serialized data, hardens the gadget chain and cleans already-stored database records; a separate registration bypass issue remains unresolved.
Suspected Chinese-speaking operator breached Philippine nuclear research and naval supplier systems via ownCloud CVE-2023-49103 and WordPress CVE-2024-28000.
Hunt.io found an exposed staging server containing custom Python scripts, logs, and stolen data documenting intrusions against a Philippine nuclear research body and a marine engineering company serving the Philippine Navy. The actor exploited an ownCloud authentication bypass (CVE-2023-49103) using empty-secret pre-signed WebDAV URLs and a LiteSpeed Cache plugin flaw (CVE-2024-28000) to gain WordPress admin access, also guessing passwords against XML-RPC with rockyou.txt. Roughly 9 GB was referenced as stolen from the nuclear agency, including reactor databases, radiation-safety records, and staff passport data; Simplified Chinese labels suggest a Chinese-speaking operator.
Wordfence researchers disclosed a critical unauthenticated authentication bypass in the WPMU DEV Dashboard plugin, enabling admin takeover and possible RCE.
During internal research on August 19, 2026, Wordfence discovered an authentication bypass in the WPMU DEV Dashboard WordPress plugin, which has roughly 350,000 active installations. Unauthenticated attackers can gain administrator access when Hub Single-Sign On is enabled, enabling complete site takeover. If an administrator-writable code mechanism such as the plugin or theme editor is available, the flaw can lead to remote code execution.
Attackers actively exploit two CVSS 9.8 auth bypasses (CVE-2026-61979, CVE-2026-15981) in the miniOrange SAML WordPress plugin, forging SAML responses to become admin.
CVE-2026-61979 is a SAML algorithm confusion flaw that lets attackers sign forged assertions using the identity provider's RSA public key as an HMAC secret; CVE-2026-15981 stems from PHP treating openssl_verify()'s -1 error return as true, allowing a crafted signature that triggers an OpenSSL error to validate. Both bugs independently let unauthenticated attackers obtain WordPress administrator sessions and both are confirmed exploited in the wild. DigitalOcean discovered the exploitation via a network anomaly after public vulnerability databases covered only the Free edition (fixed in 5.4.5), leaving seven independently versioned paid editions appearing patched. Attackers are scanning SSO endpoints from six IPs in Belgium, Nigeria, the US and Germany, and paid-edition fixes require manual uploads across version lines.
Wordfence disclosed an unauthenticated account takeover flaw in the TranslatePress WordPress plugin, installed on over 400,000 sites, enabling full admin compromise.
On August 11, 2026, Wordfence received a submission for an unauthenticated account takeover vulnerability in TranslatePress, a WordPress plugin with more than 400,000 active installations. Unauthenticated attackers can obtain an administrator's password reset link, reset the account's password, and log in as that administrator. Full compromise of the affected site is possible without any authentication. Exploitation in the wild was not reported at disclosure.
Check Point uncovered StopAndProtect, a cybercrime operation using ~2,000 hacked WordPress sites for ClickFix-driven malware delivery, data theft, surveillance, and ransomware.
Check Point Research identified the StopAndProtect operation in May 2026; it abuses close to 2,000 compromised WordPress sites, many running outdated software, to host malware stages, act as C2, and store stolen data. Infection starts with fake CAPTCHA ClickFix prompts that trick visitors into running a PowerShell command, followed by .NET downloaders deploying ransomware, SMB/USB worm, lockscreen, chat, and credential-stealing components. Rather than always encrypting, operators selectively exfiltrate file lists and specific files; researchers found 700+ stolen-data archives, roughly 31,000 screenshots, and 6,000+ unique victim IP addresses, including WhatsApp activity monitoring.
Patchstack disclosed CVE-2026-32475 (CVSS 9.0), an unauthenticated file-upload flaw in Elementor Pro enabling PHP upload and RCE; fixed in version 4.2.2.
Patchstack researcher Tin Pham reported an unrestricted file upload flaw in Elementor Pro's Forms module (CVE-2026-32475, CVSS 9.0), affecting all versions up to and including 4.2.1. Submitting two file parts for one field bypasses the extension blocklist and writes attacker-controlled PHP into a public uploads directory, yielding unauthenticated remote code execution when a published Elementor page uses a Form widget with a File Upload field. A patched version 4.2.2 shipped August 19, 2026, a day after WordPress 7.0.4 fixed CVE-2026-65640 (CVSS 8.8), an RCE via Postscript file upload when Imagick and Ghostscript are in use.
Check Point researcher Jaromír Hořejší reports the campaign begins with ClickFix fake-CAPTCHA prompts that trigger a PowerShell command, then two .NET downloader stages that launch six components: SilentEncryptor, NetworkShareScanner, a VBS spreader, LockScreen, SimpleChatProxy, and SilentDataCollector. Hacked WordPress sites host malware stages, serve C2 commands, and receive exfiltrated logs; the actors installed a self-deleting WordPress plugin enabling arbitrary PHP upload anywhere under the WordPress root. From mid-May to late July 2026 the operators exfiltrated more than 700 archives including screenshots every 30 seconds, keylogger output, and WhatsApp contact data, and opsec failures exposed their Visual Basic automation tooling and lists of nearly 2,000 compromised domains.
Wordfence disclosed CVE-2026-15748, a critical unauthenticated file upload flaw enabling RCE in the Forminator Forms WordPress plugin, patched in version 1.56.2.
Wordfence reported CVE-2026-15748 (CVSS 9.8) in Forminator Forms, a WordPress plugin with over 600,000 active installations, allowing unauthenticated attackers to upload arbitrary PHP files and achieve remote code execution. The flaw stems from insufficient file type validation in the handle_file_upload() function, and exploitation requires a form containing both a File Upload field and a Select field, plus a custom upload storage root lacking .htaccess PHP protection. All versions up to and including 1.56.1 are affected; version 1.56.2 released July 31, 2026 fixes the issue. Wordfence also disclosed CVE-2026-15826 (CVSS 9.8), an authentication bypass in User Profile Builder (40,000+ installs) letting unauthenticated attackers log in as administrator, fixed in version 3.16.5 on July 16, 2026.
WordPress maintainers patched a critical vulnerability in a widely used plugin, urging site owners to update before potential exploitation.
WordPress has released a fix for a critical vulnerability affecting one of its plugins, per Infosecurity Magazine. Plugins in the WordPress ecosystem often power millions of sites, making timely patching important to limit exposure. The available information does not specify a CVE identifier, affected versions, or whether exploitation has been observed.
WordPress 7.0.4 patches an author-level RCE in how uploaded media is handed to ImageMagick.
WordPress maintenance release 7.0.4 includes a security fix that changes how uploaded media is passed to ImageMagick, closing a path that let a logged-in author turn a crafted image upload into remote code execution. Patchstack's analysis explains the flaw as a file-type handling issue where a PNG may not be treated as a PNG. The text does not mention a CVE ID or observed exploitation, but the flaw affects extremely widely deployed software.
WordPress releases 7.0.4 with a security fix and urges all sites to update immediately.
WordPress.org announced the availability of WordPress 7.0.4, a maintenance release containing a security fix. Because it is a security release, the project recommends updating sites immediately via the dashboard or a download from WordPress.org. The announcement gives no technical details about the flaw being patched.
Unauthenticated phpinfo credential leak in ownCloud graphapi
CVE-2023-49103 is an unauthenticated information disclosure flaw in ownCloud's graphapi app (0.2.x before 0.2.1 and 0.3.x before 0.3.1), which ships a third-party GetPhpInfo.php page that returns the full PHP phpinfo output when its URL is requested. An attacker with no credentials or user interaction simply accesses that URL over the network, and the phpinfo output reveals all of the webserver's environment variables plus other potentially sensitive configuration details. In containerized deployments these environment variables frequently include the ownCloud admin password, mail server credentials, and license key, giving attackers direct credentials for the server; notably, disabling the graphapi app does not remove the exposed file. Affected deployments are ownCloud installations running the vulnerable graphapi versions, especially ownCloud Docker images built after February 2023, while containers built before February 2023 are not vulnerable to the credential disclosure. Exploitation is confirmed in the wild: CISA added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2023-11-30, the EPSS score is 78.4% (top percentile), and public reporting says threat actors have begun exploiting the flaw, though no public PoC is known.
· ownCloud graphapi (graphapi app) 0.2.x before 0.2.1; 0.3.x before 0.3.1 KEVlarge
Unauthenticated PHP Object Injection Leading to RCE in GiveWP WordPress Plugin
CVE-2026-82222 is a deserialization of untrusted data flaw (CWE-502) in the GiveWP donation plugin for WordPress, developed by Liquid Web / StellarWP, affecting all versions through 4.16.7.1. The vulnerable code path is reachable over the network without authentication (CVSS vector AV:N/AC:L/PR:N), allowing an attacker to supply a crafted serialized object that the plugin unserializes, resulting in PHP object injection. By exploiting gadget chains in the plugin or WordPress core, the attacker can achieve remote code execution and run commands on the WordPress server, with the scope-changed CVSS rating and high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impacts indicating full site or server compromise is possible. Any WordPress site running GiveWP version 4.16.7.1 or older is affected, and because donation plugins are typically deployed on donor-facing public pages, the vulnerable endpoints are often directly exposed to the internet. A public proof-of-concept exists, but current exploitation risk is assessed as low: EPSS is 0.4% (35th percentile) and the flaw is not yet in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
· Liquid Web / StellarWP GiveWP (WordPress plugin) all versions from n/a through 4.16.7.1 PoC large
Unauthenticated RCE via Arbitrary File Upload in Forminator Forms WordPress Plugin
Forminator Forms, a widely used WordPress form-builder plugin, is vulnerable to an unauthenticated arbitrary file upload (CWE-434) in its handle_file_upload function in all versions up to and including 1.56.1. The weakness stems from insufficient file type validation: the dangerous-extension blocklist performs exact-key matching that is bypassed by pipe-alternative MIME type keys, while the public form-submission handler trusts upload field configuration that an attacker controls by forging a Select field value in a submitted form. An unauthenticated attacker can therefore upload files that may be executable, such as PHP scripts, achieving remote code execution with high impact to confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CVSS 3.1 score 9.8). Any WordPress site running Forminator Forms 1.56.1 or earlier, particularly those with publicly reachable forms, is affected. No public proof-of-concept, CISA KEV listing, or confirmed in-the-wild exploitation is known; EPSS currently assigns a 4.6% probability of exploitation within 30 days (91st percentile).
· WPMU DEV Forminator Forms (WordPress plugin) All versions up to and including 1.56.1 (<= 1.56.1)large
Unauthenticated Admin Login Bypass in WordPress User Profile Builder Plugin (≤3.16.4)
CVE-2026-15826 is an unauthenticated authentication bypass caused by type confusion (CWE-704) in the User Profile Builder plugin for WordPress in all versions up to and including 3.16.4. The plugin's wppb_log_in_user() function calls absint() on the return value of wp_insert_user() before checking is_wp_error(); when a registration is submitted with a 61–70 character username, WordPress core returns a WP_Error object, but absint() coerces that object to the integer 1, so the plugin issues an autologin nonce bound to user ID 1 that the attacker can redeem to log in. As a result, an unauthenticated attacker can obtain a session as the site's Administrator account (user ID 1), achieving full administrative takeover of the site. Any WordPress site running the plugin at version 3.16.4 or earlier, with the plugin's registration/autologin flow reachable and user ID 1 holding an Administrator role, is affected. No public proof-of-concept or confirmed in-the-wild exploitation is known and the flaw is not in CISA KEV, though EPSS of 3.9% (90th percentile) suggests a moderate likelihood of exploitation within 30 days.
· Cozmoslabs User Profile Builder (Profile Builder) plugin for WordPress All versions up to and including 3.16.4large
The SAML Single Sign On – SSO Login plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Authentication Bypass in all versions up to, and including, 5.4.4.
The SAML Single Sign On – SSO Login plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Authentication Bypass in all versions up to, and including, 5.4.4. This is due to the mo_saml_validate_signature() function performing a loose boolean check on the raw tri-state integer returned by PHP's openssl_verify(), causing an error return value of -1 to be evaluated as truthy and therefore treated as a successful signature verification. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to log in as any existing WordPress user, including administrators, by submitting a crafted SAMLResponse containing an…
The Super Forms – Drag & Drop Form Builder plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Arbitrary File Upload in all versions up to, and including, 6.3.313 via the sub
The Super Forms – Drag & Drop Form Builder plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Arbitrary File Upload in all versions up to, and including, 6.3.313 via the submit_form function. This is due to missing file type validation and the absence of any capability check on the submit_form nopriv AJAX handler, whose only barrier is a session nonce freely obtainable by unauthenticated visitors via a separate nopriv endpoint. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to upload files that may be executable, which makes remote code execution possible. The nonce requirement is trivially bypassed…
Unauthenticated PHP File Upload (RCE) in Elementor Pro WordPress Plugin
Elementor Pro, the paid add-on to the widely used Elementor page builder for WordPress, is affected by an unrestricted upload of files with dangerous types (CWE-434) that can be triggered by unauthenticated attackers. An attacker sends a crafted upload request to the plugin's vulnerable endpoint and can upload a dangerous file — notably a PHP file — which the web server then executes, yielding remote code execution on the hosting account. The critical 9.0 CVSS score with scope change (S:C) and high impact across confidentiality, integrity and availability reflects that code execution lets an attacker take over the site, plant backdoors, modify content and potentially affect the underlying host. All Elementor Pro releases up to and including 4.2.1 are affected, meaning every site that has not yet updated to a fixed version is in scope. The flaw is not yet listed in CISA KEV and no public proof-of-concept is cataloged, and EPSS assigns a 2.4% 30-day exploitation probability (83rd percentile), but news reports already document hundreds of thousands of exploit attempts against Elementor Pro and Super Forms RCE flaws, so it should be treated as exploited in the wild.
· Elementor Pro (WordPress plugin) All versions from n/a through 4.2.1 (i.e., every release up to and including 4.2.1)mass
Author-Level RCE in WordPress Core via Malicious Postscript File Upload
WordPress core is vulnerable to remote code execution when a user with Author-level privileges or higher (holding the upload_files capability) uploads a malicious Postscript file that the server processes using the Imagick image library with Ghostscript. Exploitation requires two server prerequisites: Imagick must be in use and Ghostscript must be installed, and the attacker needs an account with upload rights, so unauthenticated attacks are not possible. A successful attacker gains code execution on the web server with high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CVSS 8.8). All versions of WordPress are affected; a fix shipped in WordPress 7.0.4 and was backported as a courtesy to all branches back to 4.7. No public proof-of-concept is known, the flaw is not in CISA KEV, and EPSS assigns a 1.9% probability of exploitation within 30 days, so no confirmed in-the-wild exploitation is documented.
· WordPress (core) All versions prior to the fix; fixed in 7.0.4, with the fix backported to all branches back to 4.7mass
Unauthenticated privilege escalation in miniOrange SAML SSO WordPress plugin
CVE-2026-61979 is an unauthenticated privilege-escalation flaw (CWE-266, incorrect assignment of privileges) in the miniOrange 'SAML SP Single Sign On' plugin for WordPress, affecting every version up to and including 5.4.3. Because it is reachable over the network with no privileges required and no user interaction (the CVSS 3.1 vector rates attack complexity as high), a remote attacker can abuse the plugin's SAML single sign-on handling to gain WordPress administrator-level privileges without valid credentials. With administrator access, an attacker can modify content, install plugins or themes, create rogue admin accounts, and use the site as a foothold. Any WordPress site running the affected versions is exposed, and reporting indicates the plugin's paid editions were also vulnerable to related flaws in the same campaign. No public proof-of-concept is known for this specific flaw and it is not in CISA KEV (EPSS ~0.3% over 30 days), but two separate CVSS 9.8 authentication-bypass flaws in the same plugin were exploited in the wild before they were even catalogued, and attackers are actively targeting miniOrange SAML flaws that grant WordPress admin access.
· miniOrange SAML SP Single Sign On (WordPress plugin) <= 5.4.3 · miniOrange SAML SP Single Sign On - paid/premium editions (reported alongside the actively exploited related flaws)large
Entities are extracted by the model from each article. Watching an entity keeps it in this browser only (no account); the watchlist page and dashboard alerts use it.