CVE-2026-104684 in Envira Gallery Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 10/11/2026
The Envira Gallery WordPress plugin before 1.16.2 does not verify that a user is authorized to read a gallery before rendering it, allowing authors to embed and expose other users' non-public gallery metadata to unauthenticated visitors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/11/2026
The vulnerability identified in the Envira Gallery WordPress plugin prior to version 1.16.2 represents a critical failure in access control mechanisms within the application logic. This flaw stems from an insufficient verification of user authorization when processing requests for gallery data. Specifically, the backend components responsible for rendering or retrieving metadata associated with galleries do not adequately validate whether the requesting entity possesses the necessary permissions to view that specific content. In a properly secured system, any request to access private or restricted resources must be accompanied by a rigorous check against the current user's role and capabilities defined within the WordPress permission model. The absence of this validation allows unauthenticated users, who do not possess valid login credentials or session tokens, to bypass these security boundaries entirely.
From a technical perspective, this issue classifies as an Insecure Direct Object Reference (IDOR) vulnerability, which is cataloged under CWE-639 in the Common Weakness Enumeration standard. The core of the problem lies in how the plugin handles input parameters that identify specific gallery resources. When a request is made to fetch metadata for a particular gallery ID or identifier, the application logic proceeds to retrieve and return this information without confirming if the requester has been granted explicit access rights by the site administrator or content owner. This lack of server-side authorization checks means that any individual with knowledge of a valid gallery identifier can exploit the endpoint to extract sensitive data associated with that gallery.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is significant, particularly regarding privacy and intellectual property protection for website owners who utilize non-public galleries. By exploiting this flaw, an unauthenticated attacker can enumerate and expose metadata belonging to private galleries intended only for authorized users or specific audiences. This exposed metadata may include titles, descriptions, creation dates, image counts, and potentially other contextual information that reveals the nature of the content stored within these restricted areas. While the vulnerability description specifies exposure of metadata rather than direct access to binary media files like images, such disclosure can still lead to severe privacy breaches. Attackers or malicious actors could use this aggregated data for reconnaissance purposes, social engineering attacks, or further exploitation attempts against the target organization's digital assets.
This type of unauthorized information disclosure aligns with several tactics within the MITRE ATT&CK framework, particularly those related to Discovery and Collection phases where adversaries gather intelligence about a victim environment. The ability to access non-public data without authentication undermines the fundamental security principle of least privilege and compromises the confidentiality integrity required for secure web applications. It highlights a common pitfall in plugin development where developers may rely on client-side restrictions or assume that default WordPress roles are sufficient, failing to implement explicit server-side checks for every sensitive operation involving user-specific resources.
To mitigate this vulnerability, site administrators must immediately update the Envira Gallery plugin to version 1.16.2 or later, as these subsequent releases include patches that enforce proper authorization checks before rendering gallery data. For organizations unable to patch immediately due to compatibility constraints, temporary mitigation strategies should be implemented at the web server level. This can involve configuring Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) to block requests targeting known vulnerable endpoints associated with Envira Gallery metadata retrieval if such patterns are identifiable in traffic logs. Additionally, administrators should review their site's access control policies and ensure that no other plugins or custom code introduce similar direct object reference flaws by auditing how user capabilities are validated during resource access operations. Regular security audits and penetration testing focusing on authorization bypasses can help identify and remediate similar weaknesses across the entire WordPress ecosystem before they are exploited in production environments.