CVE-2026-111862
The malware may establish persistent access, communicate with rank1cdn[.]com, recreate hidden backdoors on page visits, and expose WordPress credentials, database credentials, API keys, and other secrets accessible to the web server.
Does this matter?
High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (0.66%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.
Description
Rank Math SEO PRO for WordPress is affected by a supply-chain compromise in a subset of version 3.0.123 packages downloaded or updated between October 15, 2026 at 20:02 UTC and October 16, 2026 at 07:12 UTC. Rank Math states that the affected plugin files contained malware that could compromise a website if the plugin was activated and directs sites that activated an affected package to treat the website as compromised. The malware may establish persistent access, communicate with rank1cdn[.]com, recreate hidden backdoors on page visits, and expose WordPress credentials, database credentials, API keys, and other secrets accessible to the web server. Rank Math identifies three malicious wp_options keys, hidden PHP backdoors, unauthorized administrator accounts, a fake WordPress core file, PHP-executable .cache files, and a system cron marker as incident indicators. Only packages obtained during the vendor-confirmed window are claimed as affected; version 3.0.123 alone is not sufficient to establish compromise. Rank Math removed the affected files and released version 3.0.124 as the clean replacement.
- CVSS 3.1
- 9.8 CRITICALCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- EPSS
- 0.66% probability · 51th percentile
- Public exploits
- None in Exploit-DB
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-506
- Source
- security@wordfence.com
EPSS moved from 0.7% on 20 October 2026 to 0.7% on 27 October 2026.
References
- https://rankmath.com/changelog/
- https://rankmath.com/kb/pro-3-0-123-security-incident/
- https://rdap.verisign.com/com/v1/domain/rank1cdn.com
- https://urlscan.io/result/01a145c2-8dc8-72ff-a65d-21209ca29c4f/
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/81cd7a2c-ad0c-4dbc-b5dc-07ec866d5c1f?source=cve
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.