WordPress Click2Shell Flaw Enables PHP Execution via Theme Preview Chain
A high-severity vulnerability chain dubbed Click2Shell affects WordPress Core versions 7.1.0 and select releases across branches 7.0 through 4.8, allowing unauthenticated attackers to trigger remote PHP execution. By luring an administrator to a crafted URL, the flaw exploits a selector injection in WordPress Core that automatically installs an official theme from the WordPress.org catalog without any explicit admin action. When chained with a vulnerable theme, a follow-on request to admin-ajax.php causes the inactive theme's functions.php to load and fetch an attacker-specified plugin ZIP, ultimately executing arbitrary PHP under the server's web worker account. WordPress has released patched versions — including 7.1.1, 7.0.5, 6.9.8, and 4.8.31 — with fixes backported across all affected branches. Administrators are advised to update immediately, remove unused themes, and restrict outbound traffic and plugin installation permissions as additional mitigations.
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