CVE-2026-4280
The Breaking News WP plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Local File Inclusion in all versions up to, and including, 1.3.
Does this matter?
Lower severity and a low EPSS score (0.81%). Track it; it rarely justifies an emergency change on its own.
Description
The Breaking News WP plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Local File Inclusion in all versions up to, and including, 1.3. This is due to the brnwp_ajax_form AJAX endpoint lacking both authorization checks and CSRF verification, combined with insufficient path validation when the brnwp_theme option value is passed directly to an include() statement in the brnwp_show_breaking_news_wp() shortcode handler. While sanitize_text_field() is applied to user input, it does not strip directory traversal sequences (../). This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to overwrite the brnwp_theme option with a directory traversal payload (e.g., ../../../../etc/passwd) and subsequently trigger file inclusion of arbitrary files on the server when the shortcode is rendered.
- CVSS 3.1
- 6.5 MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
- EPSS
- 0.81% probability · 57th percentile
- Public exploits
- None in Exploit-DB
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-22
- Source
- security@wordfence.com
EPSS 0.8% since 26 October 2026; no change recorded yet. Points are recorded when the score first appears and whenever it moves by a percentage point or more.
References
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/breaking-news-wp/tags/1.3/breaking-news.php#L366
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/breaking-news-wp/tags/1.3/breaking-news.php#L372
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/breaking-news-wp/tags/1.3/breaking-news.php#L85
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/breaking-news-wp/trunk/breaking-news.php#L366
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/breaking-news-wp/trunk/breaking-news.php#L372
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/breaking-news-wp/trunk/breaking-news.php#L85
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/4772b482-f5e5-4707-b012-aca70fc89e49?source=cve
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.