CVE-2026-110983 in WP Photo Album Plus Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 10/29/2026
The WP Photo Album Plus WordPress plugin before 9.3.04.004 does not verify the origin or a security token for one of its comment-management requests, allowing attackers to delete photo comments by tricking a logged-in user who holds comment-moderation rights into loading a crafted page.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/29/2026
The vulnerability identified in WP Photo Album Plus versions prior to 9.3.04.004 represents a critical failure in access control mechanisms, specifically manifesting as a Cross-Site Request Forgery flaw within the plugin's comment management subsystem. This security deficiency arises because the application fails to verify the origin of incoming requests or validate unique security tokens associated with state-changing operations. In modern web application architecture, it is standard practice to implement anti-CSRF measures such as synchronizer tokens or strict SameSite cookie attributes to ensure that actions performed by authenticated users are intentional and initiated from trusted contexts. The absence of these safeguards in this specific plugin allows external entities to forge requests on behalf of legitimate administrators without their knowledge or consent.
The technical flaw centers on the lack of validation for the Referer header and the omission of a unique, unpredictable token required to authorize comment deletion operations. When an administrator with moderation privileges visits a maliciously crafted webpage hosted by an attacker, the browser automatically includes any relevant cookies associated with the WordPress site in HTTP requests sent to that domain if they contain links or scripts targeting the vulnerable endpoint. Because WP Photo Album Plus does not check whether this request originated from its own server or verify a valid session token, it treats the forged request as legitimate. This allows an attacker to execute arbitrary commands within the context of the authenticated user's session, effectively bypassing authentication and authorization checks that should protect sensitive administrative functions.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is significant for any WordPress site utilizing WP Photo Album Plus with users who possess comment moderation rights. Attackers can remotely delete photo comments without leaving a trace in standard audit logs that might indicate unauthorized access attempts, as the actions appear to originate from valid administrator sessions. This not only results in data loss and disruption of community engagement but also undermines the integrity of the content management system. Furthermore, such vulnerabilities are often precursors to more severe attacks; an attacker with the ability to manipulate comment states could potentially escalate privileges or use the platform for phishing campaigns by altering displayed information to deceive other users.
From a classification perspective, this issue aligns with CWE-352, which describes Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF), and maps directly to MITRE ATT&CK technique T1498.002, known as Network Denial of Service via Web Application Vulnerabilities or more broadly under privilege escalation vectors where trusted users are tricked into performing unintended actions. The exploitation relies on the social engineering aspect of convincing a privileged user to load malicious content, leveraging their existing trust relationship with the web application.
To mitigate this vulnerability, site administrators must immediately upgrade WP Photo Album Plus to version 9.3.04.004 or later, where these security controls have been implemented by the developers. Until an update is applied, temporary mitigations include restricting access to the WordPress admin area through IP whitelisting if feasible, although this does not fully eliminate risk for remote users. Additionally, implementing a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with robust CSRF protection rules can help detect and block forged requests based on header anomalies or missing tokens. Regular security audits and adherence to OWASP guidelines for session management and request validation are essential practices to prevent similar vulnerabilities in future development cycles.