CVE-2019-16220 — In WordPress before 5

In WordPress before 5.2.3, validation and sanitization of a URL in wp_validate_redirect in wp-includes/pluggable.php could lead to an open redirect if a provided URL path does not start with a forward slash.

01What is this vulnerability?

In WordPress before 5.2.3, validation and sanitization of a URL in wp_validate_redirect in wp-includes/pluggable.php could lead to an open redirect if a provided URL path does not start with a forward slash.

02Affected products

Vendor	Product	Versions
n	a / n/a	n/a

03Active exploitation status

Not currently listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. EPSS is the best forward-looking signal — see the EPSS row above.

04Recommended remediation

• Patch to a fixed version listed in the vendor advisory (see references below).
• Mitigate with WAF rules, network egress filters, or feature flags where the patch is not yet available.
• Hunt historical logs for exploitation indicators — see Detection signatures below.

05Technical details

For the full vendor write-up, exploit chains, and reference implementations, see the references list in section 09.

06Detection signatures

Ask SARA in chat to draft a starting detection for this CVE in your stack of choice.

07Related CVEs

No directly-cited follow-up CVEs in the KB record for this advisory. The references list in section 09 carries the vendor cross-references.

08Timeline

• Published: 2019-09-11T13:06:57.000Z
• Last modified: 2024-08-21T16:00:10.212Z

09References

• wpvulndb.com — https://wpvulndb.com/vulnerabilities/9863
• wordpress.org — https://wordpress.org/news/2019/09/wordpress-5-2-3-security-and-maintenance-rele…
• core.trac.wordpress.org — https://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/45971
• github.com — https://github.com/WordPress/WordPress/commit/c86ee39ff4c1a79b93c967eb88522f5c09…
• lists.debian.org — https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2019/10/msg00023.html
• seclists.org — https://seclists.org/bugtraq/2020/Jan/8
• www.debian.org — https://www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4599
• www.debian.org — https://www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4677