CVE-2023-2745 — WordPress Core is vulnerable to Directory Traversal in versions up to, and inclu

WordPress Core is vulnerable to Directory Traversal in versions up to, and including, 6.2, via the ‘wp_lang’ parameter. This allows unauthenticated attackers to access and load arbitrary translation files. In cases where an attacker is able to upload a crafted translation file on

01What is this vulnerability?

WordPress Core is vulnerable to Directory Traversal in versions up to, and including, 6.2, via the ‘wp_lang’ parameter. This allows unauthenticated attackers to access and load arbitrary translation files. In cases where an attacker is able to upload a crafted translation file onto the site, such as via an upload form, this could be also used to perform a Cross-Site Scripting attack.

02Affected products

No structured affected-product list available — see references below for vendor advisories.

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: 2023-05-17T09:15:10.303
• Last modified: 2026-04-08T19:18:19.083

09References

• core.trac.wordpress.org — https://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?sfp_email=&sfph_mail=&reponame=&old=55…
• wordpress.org — https://wordpress.org/news/2023/05/wordpress-6-2-1-maintenance-security-release/
• www.wordfence.com — https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2023/05/wordpress-core-6-2-1-security-maintenance…
• www.wordfence.com — https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/edcf46b6-368e-49c0-b2c…
• packetstormsecurity.com — http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/172426/WordPress-Core-6.2-XSS-CSRF-Director…
• core.trac.wordpress.org — https://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?sfp_email=&sfph_mail=&reponame=&old=55…
• lists.debian.org — https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/06/msg00024.html
• wordpress.org — https://wordpress.org/news/2023/05/wordpress-6-2-1-maintenance-security-release/
• www.exploit-db.com — https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/52274
• www.wordfence.com — https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/edcf46b6-368e-49c0-b2c…