Wordpress is an open source CMS. A user with the ability to upload files (like an Author) can exploit an XML parsing issue in the Media Library leading to XXE attacks. This requires WordPress installation to be using PHP 8. Access to internal files is possible in a successful XXE attack. This has been patched in WordPress version 5.7.1, along with the older affected versions via a minor release. We strongly recommend you keep auto-updates enabled.
CVE-2021-29447
“▲” beside the score: it is higher than NVD's CVSS score.
Score elevated to 9.0 because EPSS predicted 86% probability of exploitation within the next 30 days (99th percentile of EPSS-scored CVEs) when EchelonGraph scored this CVE. NVD baseline CVSS 7.1 retained for reference. Confidence: see factors.
Also known asEUVD-2021-16064 (ENISA EUVD)Source: ENISA EUVD
- High exploitation likelihood — EPSS 86%
- Public exploit or proof-of-concept code is available
A fix is available — apply it.
- CVSS v3
- 7.1
- EG Score
- 9.0CRITICALhigh confidence
- EG Risk
- 66EG Risk 66/100
EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score. It fuses impact severity (EG Severity, the CVSS base score, never the KEV-floored or EPSS-lifted EG Score) with real-world exploitation and automatability, under weights EchelonGraph set by hand, so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner.
How it’s computed (value × EchelonGraph’s weight)Severity71% × 45%Impact severity (EG Severity): CVSS 7.1 of 10. Never the KEV-floored or EPSS-lifted EG Score.Exploitation86% × 40%FIRST EPSS: the 30-day exploitation probability when EchelonGraph scored this CVE.Automatability0% × 15%CISA's BOD 26-04 default: no one has published Automatable for this CVE, and CISA treats it as “no” for a CVE not in KEV.SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph): Track at low, Track* at medium and Attend at high mission impact.Exploitation public PoC (exploit code on record) · Automatable no (CISA's BOD 26-04 default) · Technical impact total (CISA's BOD 26-04 default). EchelonGraph holds no SSVC assessment of this CVE from CISA: none of these inputs is from Vulnrichment. EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE.Action: A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high. - EPSS PROB
- 86%
- EPSS %ILE
- 99th
- KEV
- Not listed
What the EG score is made of (scorer v4.0: the three questions the 0–10 score mixes, published apart · methodology)
The EG score (9.0): severity, escalated by confirmed exploitation. This CVE's 9.0 is EPSS's lift toward 9.0 from its impact severity (EG Severity, CVSS 7.1 HIGH): a likelihood of exploitation, not impact.
- EG Severity
- 7.1 HIGHCVSS-B, impact only: no KEV listing, EPSS or EG-KEV tier raises it.NVD CVSS v3 · CVSS v3.0 or v3.1
- EG Likelihood
- 86% within 30 daysSource: FIRST EPSS (model v2026.06.15, score date 2026-11-01). FIRST's exploitation probability, not an EchelonGraph model.
- Confirmed exploitation
- None on record (CISA KEV, EG-KEV Tier 1)Reported apart from the likelihood: an observed fact, not a probability.
- EG Priority
- SSVC Track* at medium mission impactTrack at low, Track* at medium and Attend at high mission impact.CISA BOD 26-04: 14 days if the affected system is publicly exposed; Fix on system upgrade if it is not.Each input and its source, and whom BOD 26-04 binds: the SSVC and BOD 26-04 blocks below.
SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph)Track at low, Track* at medium and Attend at high mission impact.
A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high.
Exploitation public PoC (exploit code on record) · Automatable no (CISA's BOD 26-04 default) · Technical impact total (CISA's BOD 26-04 default). EchelonGraph holds no SSVC assessment of this CVE from CISA: none of these inputs is from Vulnrichment. EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE. Mission impact is CISA's Mission & Well-being decision point, and only you can judge it. CISA's table makes it high when Mission Prevalence is Essential — the vulnerable component "directly provides capabilities that constitute at least one MEF for at least one entity" (MEF: mission essential function) — or when Public Well-Being Impact is Irreversible: "multiple fatalities are likely", the cyber-physical system "is likely lost or destroyed", "extreme or serious externalities" are imposed on other parties, or social systems such as elections or the financial grid "are destabilized and potentially collapse". CISA's decision table
BOD 26-04 (CISA's remediation timeline, Table 1)14 days if the affected system is publicly exposed; Fix on system upgrade if it is not.
The score's inputs: In CISA KEV no (CISA's KEV catalog) · Automatable no (CISA's BOD 26-04 default) · Technical impact total (CISA's BOD 26-04 default). Where an input reads “CISA's BOD 26-04 default”, no one has published it for this CVE, and CISA's implementation guidance says: “If “Automatable” and “Technical Impact” information items about a CVE ID are not available and the CVE ID is not in the KEV Catalog, CISA will treat its values as “no” and “total,” respectively, until CISA or a third party provides metadata about the CVE ID. CISA will always provide the Vulnrichment data for a CVE ID listed in the KEV Catalog.” Whether your system is publicly exposed is yours to answer. BOD 26-04 binds US Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies; for anyone else it is CISA's published timeline, a reference rather than an obligation. The directive · how EchelonGraph applies it
Published
April 15, 2021
Last Modified
November 21, 2024
Advisory Details (7)
Auto-updated Oct 15, 2026WordPress 5.7 XXE Vulnerability | Sonar
https://blog.sonarsource.com/wordpress-xxe-security-vulnerability/Packet Storm
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/164198/WordPress-5.7-Media-Library-XML-Injection.htmlPacket Storm
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/163148/XML-External-Entity-Via-MP3-File-Upload-On-WordPress.html[SECURITY] [DSA 4896-1] wordpress security update
https://www.debian.org/security/2021/dsa-4896[SECURITY] [DLA 2630-1] wordpress security update
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2021/04/msg00017.htmlWordPress: Authenticated XXE attack when installation is running PHP 8 · Advisory · WordPress/wordpress-develop · GitHub
https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/security/advisories/GHSA-rv47-pc52-qrhhAffected Packages
(6 across 6 ecosystems)
Debian:10(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fix by version range | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| wordpress | 5.0.10+dfsg1-0+deb10u1, 5.0.11+dfsg1-0+deb10u1, 5.0.4+dfsg1-1, 5.0.4+dfsg1-1+deb10u1, 5.0.4+dfsg1-1+deb10u2 |
| — |
Debian:11(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fix by version range | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| wordpress | — |
| — |
Debian:12(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fix by version range | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| wordpress | — |
| — |
Debian:13(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fix by version range | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| wordpress | — |
| — |
Debian:14(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fix by version range | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| wordpress | — |
| — |
Debian:9(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fix by version range | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| wordpress | 4.7.18+dfsg-1+deb9u1 ... 4.7.5+dfsg-2+deb9u6 (11 versions) |
| — |
Weakness Classification(1)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 10× in last 7d / 35× in last 30d)
Each row is a time one of our pipelines fetched, updated or re-scored this CVE. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. An arrow marks a change the record states ("CVSS v3 → 9.1"); EPSS and GHSA rows show the values recorded at that time, not what changed (EPSS values are rounded; hover one for the exact figures). Most recent first.
Showing the most recent 89 of 103 refreshes on record for this CVE.
A repeat, a row identical to one the same pipeline wrote less than 10 seconds earlier, is not a separate refresh and is not counted. 11 repeat rows among the latest 100 are merged into the row they repeat. The 14 oldest rows on record are not shown and were not checked, so the counts can still include repeats.
- 2026-11-01 18:28 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-31 20:47 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-30 23:05 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-30 01:24 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-29 16:29 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-29 03:43 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-28 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-28 05:59 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-27 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-27 08:18 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-25 18:30 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-25 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-25 10:39 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-24 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-24 12:57 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-22 17:23 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-21 19:09 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-21 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-20 21:27 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-20 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-19 23:45 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-18 23:08 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-18 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-18 09:04 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-18 00:26 UTCEG score recompute
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- 2026-10-17 02:34 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-16 04:35 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-15 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-15 03:03 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-14 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-13 23:14 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-12 19:19 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-11 23:44 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-10 19:56 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-07 23:44 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-02 16:22 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-09-30 15:34 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-09-26 04:12 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-09-24 14:00 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-09-21 20:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-09-18 19:23 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-09-16 14:05 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-09-12 14:57 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-09-06 19:01 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-09-06 13:44 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-09-05 15:25 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-09-04 13:57 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-09-04 05:03 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-08-30 19:14 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-08-30 01:19 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-08-28 21:37 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-08-27 14:22 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-08-26 14:42 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-08-25 13:45 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-08-24 14:12 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-08-21 23:46 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-08-20 05:04 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-08-19 17:01 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-08-15 01:27 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-08-11 13:38 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-08-05 19:14 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-08-05 00:10 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-07-30 01:27 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-07-24 14:15 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-07-23 01:59 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 22:46 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 14:06 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-07-20 17:05 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-07-18 22:29 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-07-15 16:55 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-07-13 06:10 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-07-11 08:25 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-07-07 13:43 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-07-06 02:21 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-07-05 02:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-07-01 15:03 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-07-01 05:18 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-06-27 03:06 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-06-24 14:03 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-06-15 17:46 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 86% · 99th percentile
- 2026-06-13 22:58 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 91% · 99th percentile
- 2026-06-13 08:43 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-06-12 23:10 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 91% · 99th percentile
- 2026-06-10 22:16 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 91% · 99th percentile
- 2026-06-10 13:20 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 91% · 99th percentile
- 2026-06-08 14:15 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 91% · 99th percentile
- 2026-06-07 15:23 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 91% · 99th percentile
- 2026-06-06 13:46 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 91% · 99th percentile
Publicly available exploits
(11 references, 10 shown)Public exploit code is referenced for this CVE (1 Exploit-DB entry, 10 GitHub PoCs). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly.
- GitHub PoCTea-On/CVE-2021-29447-Authenticated-XXE-WordPress-5.6-5.7Published Jul 4, 2025
POC to exploit WordPress 5.6-5.7 (PHP 8+) Authenticated XXE Injection.
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoC0xRar/CVE-2021-29447-PoCPublished Jan 24, 2023
A proof of concept exploit for a wordpress 5.6 media library vulnerability
Open source ↗ - Open source ↗GitHub PoCAbdulazizalsewedy/CVE-2021-29447Published Nov 17, 2022
- GitHub PoCthomas-osgood/CVE-2021-29447Published Nov 15, 2022
A Golang program to automate the execution of CVE-2021-29447
Open source ↗ - Open source ↗GitHub PoCmega8bit/exploit_cve-2021-29447Published Nov 14, 2022
- GitHub PoCM3l0nPan/wordpress-cve-2021-29447Published Nov 11, 2022
Exploit WordPress Media Library XML External Entity Injection (XXE) to exfiltrate files.
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoCelf1337/blind-xxe-controller-CVE-2021-29447Published Nov 6, 2022
Arbitrary file read controller based on CVE-2021-29447
Open source ↗ - Exploit-DBEDB-50304Published Sep 20, 2021
WordPress 5.7 - 'Media Library' XML External Entity Injection (XXE) (Authenticated)
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoCdnr6419/CVE-2021-29447Published Jun 1, 2021
Wordpress XXE injection 구축 자동화 및 PoC
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoCVulnmachines/wordpress_cve-2021-29447Published May 23, 2021
WordPress XXE vulnerability
Open source ↗
Related CVEs
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Frequently asked(5)
What is CVE-2021-29447?
When was the CVE record for CVE-2021-29447 published?
Is CVE-2021-29447 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2021-29447?
How do I remediate CVE-2021-29447?
Dependency Blast Radius
See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2021-29447
Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2021-29447?
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