CVE-2018-12895: Debian Linux

High severity, CVSS 8.8. EPSS: 62.2% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

WordPress through 4.9.6 allows Author users to execute arbitrary code by leveraging directory traversal in the wp-admin/post.php thumb parameter, which is passed to the PHP unlink function and can delete the wp-config.php file. This is related to missing filename validation in the wp-includes/post.php wp_delete_attachment function. The attacker must have capabilities for files and posts that are normally available only to the Author, Editor, and Administrator roles. The attack methodology is to delete wp-config.php and then launch a new installation process to increase the attacker's privileges.

Affected products

• Debian Debian Linux: version 8.0 only; version 9.0 only
• WordPress WordPress: before 4.9.7 (fixed in 4.9.7)

Published 2018-06-26. Last modified 2026-06-17.