Ad Inserter – Ad Manager & AdSense Ads: Broken access control

Ad Inserter – Ad Manager & AdSense Ads is affected by broken access control. Exploitation requires an authenticated contributor account. A successful request can reach data or an operation that should be restricted to another user or a more privileged role. The published affected range is <= 2.8.16.

CVE / CNA score 4.3 CVSS 3.1 · security@wordfence.com

NVD score Pending NVD has not published its own CVSS assessment.

Component: Ad Inserter – Ad Manager & AdSense Ads
Plugin slug: ad-inserter
Affected: <= 2.8.16
Safe version: See mitigation notes
Published: Jul 03, 2026
Weakness: CWE-639 — Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key

This CVE was published Jul 03, 2026 and is one of 17 known issues for this plugin.

What to do

Update, patch or deactivate.

No fixed release is identified. Update Ad Inserter – Ad Manager & AdSense Ads when a release after 2.8.16 becomes available; until then, disable and remove it when the site's risk warrants. The official upstream changelog lists version 2.8.18, which is newer than the published affected range. Its changelog does not clearly confirm this specific fix, so it is not counted as a known-safe release.

No confirmed safe version is listed. Consider a vendor-supported patch or temporarily restricting the affected functionality while you assess the risk.

Deactivate only when warranted by your risk profile, or when advised by your hosting provider in the limited circumstances where the vulnerability cannot otherwise be mitigated. If you’re unsure which action is appropriate, contact Fused or your hosting provider for guidance.

Source record

Technical description

The Ad Inserter – Ad Manager & AdSense Ads plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Insecure Direct Object Reference in versions up to and including 2.8.16 via the 'data' attribute of the [adinserter] shortcode. This is due to the replace_ai_tags() function processing a {reusable-block-N} tag pattern that calls get_post_field('post_content', N) without verifying the requesting user's capability with current_user_can('read_post'), without restricting the post type to 'wp_block', and without checking the post status. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Contributor-level access and above, to read the full content of arbitrary posts including Private, Draft, Pending, Trashed, and password-protected posts owned by other users, by placing the shortcode in a post they own and previewing it.

CVE / CNA vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N

References

Primary and upstream sources

Data attribution: This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.

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