U.S. CISA adds WordPress flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

Pierluigi Paganini
September 26, 2026

U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) adds WordPress flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added a WordPress Core flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-87902 (CVSS score of 9.2), to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.

CVE-2026-87902 allows an unauthenticated attacker to make the get_page_template() function include a readable local PHP file outside the active theme directories. Under specific server and theme conditions, the flaw can lead to remote code execution. The vulnerability is being actively exploited, with attackers using pearcmd.php to write malicious PHP files and execute code.

This week, WordPress released version 7.1.2 to address this flaw. It stems from how the CMS resolves page templates, with a real path to remote code execution.

The bug affected every version back to 4.7.0. That’s nearly a decade of releases, and nobody needs an account to trigger it. Robert Ressl gets credit for reporting it.

According to Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 22-01: Reducing the Significant Risk of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities, FCEB agencies have to address the identified vulnerabilities by the due date to protect their networks against attacks exploiting the flaws in the catalog.

Experts also recommend that private organizations review the Catalog and address the vulnerabilities in their infrastructure.

CISA orders federal agencies to fix the flaw by September 24, 2026.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, CISA)

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AndyC

Andy Curtis is an award-winning security consultant, researcher and public speaker. He has been working in the computer security industry since the early 1990s, having been employed by state and federal government, leading healthcare and banking providers across three continents. He has given talks about computer security for some of the world’s largest companies, worked with law enforcement agencies on investigations into hacking groups, and is a regular voice on TV and radio explaining IT security threats.

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