CVE-2026-3835

medium

Description

The Prevent Direct Access – Protect WordPress Files plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized access of protected files due to insufficient token validation in the `get_advance_file_by_url()` method in all versions up to, and including, 2.8.8.8 The method uses a SQL `LIKE` operator for token lookup without escaping wildcard characters via `$wpdb->esc_like()`. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to bypass the private token requirement by supplying SQL wildcard characters (such as `%`) as the token value, matching any record in the plugin's file table and downloading any protected file.

References

https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/c39d16f1-ce80-402c-8a36-f9070dc5f9c9?source=cve

https://wordpress.org/plugins/prevent-direct-access/

https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?reponame=&new=3637502%40prevent-direct-access%2Ftags%2F2.8.8.9&old=3524320%40prevent-direct-access%2Ftags%2F2.8.8.8

https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?old_path=%2Fprevent-direct-access/tags/2.8.8.8&new_path=%2Fprevent-direct-access/tags/2.8.8.9

https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3637499/prevent-direct-access/trunk/includes/repository.php

https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/prevent-direct-access/trunk/includes/repository.php#L221

https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/prevent-direct-access/trunk/download.php#L377

https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/prevent-direct-access/tags/2.8.8.4/includes/repository.php#L221

Details

Source: Mitre, NVD

Published: 2026-08-13

Updated: 2026-08-14

Risk Information

CVSS v2

Base Score: 5

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N

Severity: Medium

CVSS v3

Base Score: 5.3

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N

Severity: Medium

EPSS

EPSS: 0.00273