# CVE-2022-21661

WordPress is a free and open-source content management system written in PHP and paired with a MariaDB database. Due to improper sanitization in WP_Query, there can be cases where SQL injection is possible through plugins or themes that use it in a certain way. This has been patched in WordPress version 5.8.3. Older affected versions are also fixed via security release, that go back till 3.7.37. We strongly recommend that you keep auto-updates enabled. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

- Page: https://www.vulneraibility.com/cve/CVE-2022-21661
- CVSS: 8.0
- Known exploited: not in CISA KEV as of our last sync
- EPSS: 97.80% (percentile 99.9)
- Public exploit code: 1 on Exploit-DB · 13 GitHub proofs of concept · 1 Nuclei template (first 2022-01-13)
- CISA SSVC: exploitation poc, automatable no, technical impact total (assessed 2024-09-09)
- Weakness: CWE-89
- Published: 2022-01-06

## Affected versions

- WordPress wordpress-develop: affected < 5.8.3

A version outside these ranges is not a statement that it is unaffected.

## References

- [other] https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/security/advisories/GHSA-6676-cqfm-gw84
- [other] https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/commit/17efac8c8ec64555eff5cf51a3eff81e06317214
- [other] https://wordpress.org/news/2022/01/wordpress-5-8-3-security-release/
- [other] https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-22-020/
- [advisory] https://www.debian.org/security/2022/dsa-5039
- [other] https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/50663
- [other] http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/165540/WordPress-Core-5.8.2-SQL-Injection.html
- [advisory] https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/DM6XPH3JN6V4NF4WBOJTOXZIVE6VKKE3/
- [advisory] https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/CV4UNEC63UU5GEU47IIR4RMTZAHNEOJG/
- [other] https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/01/msg00019.html
- [other] https://www.vicarius.io/vsociety/posts/understanding-the-wordpress-sql-injection-vulnerability-cve-2022-21661

---
Summary, impact and action are written by the vulneraibility.com AI analysis pipeline from the CVE record, NVD, CISA and FIRST data; verify against the references.