WordPress security changelog
HIGH CVE-2026-5809 Deferred

wpForo Forum: Arbitrary file deletion

wpForo Forum is affected by arbitrary file deletion. Exploitation requires at least subscriber-level access. A successful request can remove files outside the intended scope and may make the site unavailable. The published affected range is <= 3.0.2.

CVE / CNA score 7.1 CVSS 3.1 · security@wordfence.com
NVD score Pending NVD has not published its own CVSS assessment.
Component
wpForo Forum
Plugin slug
wpforo
Affected
<= 3.0.2
Safe version
> 3.0.2
Published
Apr 11, 2026
Weakness
CWE-73 — External Control of File Name or Path

This CVE was published Apr 11, 2026 and is one of 47 known issues for this plugin.

What to do

Update, patch or deactivate.

Update wpForo Forum to a release after 3.0.2, or disable and remove it until a fixed version is available.

A safe version is available, so updating to that version or later is the preferred remediation. If an immediate update is not practical, consider a targeted application patch or temporarily restricting the affected functionality.

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 wpForo Forum plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Arbitrary File Deletion in versions up to and including 3.0.2. This is due to a two-step logic flaw: the topic_add() and topic_edit() action handlers accept arbitrary user-supplied data[*] arrays from $_REQUEST and store them as postmeta without restricting which fields may contain array values. Because 'body' is included in the allowed topic fields list, an attacker can supply data[body][fileurl] with an arbitrary file path (e.g., wp-config.php or an absolute server path). This poisoned fileurl is persisted to the plugin's custom postmeta database table. Subsequently, when the attacker submits wpftcf_delete[]=body on a topic_edit request, the add_file() method retrieves the stored postmeta record, extracts the attacker-controlled fileurl, passes it through wpforo_fix_upload_dir() which only rewrites legitimate wpforo upload paths and returns all other paths unchanged, and then calls wp_delete_file() on the unvalidated path. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with subscriber-level access and above, to delete arbitrary files writable by the PHP process on the server, including critical files such as wp-config.

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

References

Primary and upstream sources