CVE-2026-15991
Medium
Elevated severity or exploit probability.
Description
The File Manager plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to arbitrary file deletion due to insufficient file path validation in the connector function in all versions from 6.0 - 6.9. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with subscriber-level access and above, to read and delete arbitrary files on the server, which can lead to remote code execution when the right file is deleted (such as wp-config.php). The bypass is triggered by passing cmd=rm or cmf=file in the URL query string of a POST request: elFinder's bind registration reads the command exclusively from $_POST and therefore never registers the rm.pre permission handler, while the dispatcher reads from the merged $_GET+$_POST superglobal and executes the rm or file command unchecked against a volume that defaults to ABSPATH.
References
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/file-manager/tags/6.9/backend/app/Http/Controllers/FileManagerController.php#L32
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/file-manager/tags/6.9/backend/app/Http/Controllers/FileManagerController.php#L34
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/file-manager/tags/6.9/backend/app/Providers/AccessControlProvider.php#L121
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/file-manager/tags/6.9/backend/hooks/ajax.php#L10
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/file-manager/tags/6.9/vendor/studio-42/elfinder/php/elFinder.class.php#L802
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/file-manager/tags/6.9/vendor/studio-42/elfinder/php/elFinderConnector.class.php#L320
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3632660/file-manager/trunk/backend/app/Http/Controllers/FileManagerController.php
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?old_path=%2Ffile-manager/tags/6.9&new_path=%2Ffile-manager/tags/6.9.1
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/a041f15c-0e30-459b-8df7-0465c0bc268a?source=cve