CVE-2026-118081 in Social Photo Feed Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 10/29/2026
Contributor PHP Object Injection in 10Web Social Photo Feed <= 1.5.6 versions.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/29/2026
The vulnerability identified as Contributor PHP Object Injection within the 10Web Social Photo Feed plugin, specifically affecting versions up to and including 1.5.6, represents a critical server-side security flaw rooted in improper input validation and unsafe deserialization practices. This type of vulnerability allows an attacker to manipulate serialized objects that are subsequently passed through insecure functions such as unserialize or similar mechanisms within the PHP runtime environment. The core technical issue lies in the application's failure to strictly validate user-supplied data before processing it, particularly when handling contributions from users with contributor-level access privileges. By crafting a maliciously formatted payload containing a specially constructed serialized object, an attacker can exploit this lack of sanitization to inject arbitrary code or trigger unintended side effects during the deserialization process. This flaw is fundamentally categorized under CWE-502, which denotes Deserialization of Untrusted Data, and often intersects with CWE-94 for Code Injection if the injected objects lead to direct execution commands.
From an operational perspective, the impact of this vulnerability extends far beyond simple data exposure or defacement. Successful exploitation can grant an attacker full control over the underlying PHP application logic running on the web server. Depending on the specific configuration and available classes within the WordPress environment, this could result in Remote Code Execution (RCE), allowing the compromise of the entire website infrastructure rather than just the plugin itself. Attackers with contributor-level access, which is a relatively low privilege level often granted to content creators or guest authors, can leverage this flaw to escalate their privileges significantly. This aligns with ATT&CK technique T1059, Command and Scripting Interpreter, as well as T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation, highlighting the severe risk of lateral movement within a compromised network if the web server is part of a larger infrastructure. The ability to execute arbitrary code means that sensitive data such as database credentials, user sessions, and proprietary content can be exfiltrated or altered without detection by standard security monitoring tools.
The presence of this vulnerability underscores the importance of rigorous input validation and output encoding in all software components, especially those handling external contributions where trust boundaries are frequently blurred. Developers must ensure that any data originating from users is treated as untrusted until it has been thoroughly validated against a strict whitelist of expected formats and types. In the context of PHP applications, this means avoiding direct deserialization of user-controlled input whenever possible or implementing robust serialization filters like SPL Autoloaders with allowlisted classes to restrict which objects can be instantiated during the unserialization process. For organizations utilizing the 10Web Social Photo Feed plugin, immediate remediation is required by upgrading to a patched version that addresses this specific flaw in contributor handling logic. Additionally, administrators should enforce strict role-based access controls and monitor server logs for anomalous activity indicative of exploitation attempts, such as unusual POST requests containing serialized data patterns or unexpected system calls originating from the web application process.