CVE-2026-2301
Severity CVSS v4.0:
Pending analysis
Type:
Unavailable / Other
Publication date:
25/02/2026
Last modified:
25/02/2026
Description
The Post Duplicator plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized arbitrary protected post meta insertion in all versions up to, and including, 3.0.8. This is due to the `duplicate_post()` function in `includes/api.php` using `$wpdb->insert()` directly to the `wp_postmeta` table instead of WordPress's standard `add_post_meta()` function, which would call `is_protected_meta()` to prevent lower-privileged users from setting protected meta keys (those starting with `_`). This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Contributor-level access and above, to inject arbitrary protected post meta keys such as `_wp_page_template`, `_wp_attached_file`, and other sensitive meta keys on duplicated posts via the `customMetaData` JSON array parameter in the `/wp-json/post-duplicator/v1/duplicate-post` REST API endpoint.
Impact
Base Score 3.x
4.30
Severity 3.x
MEDIUM
References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/post-duplicator/tags/3.0.6/includes/api.php#L843
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/post-duplicator/tags/3.0.6/includes/api.php#L923
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?sfp_email=&sfph_mail=&reponame=&new=3463768%40post-duplicator/trunk&old=3459096%40post-duplicator/trunk
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/e5c86f72-934c-4f3b-ab2a-65df1490ca8a?source=cve



