Executive brief
Blubrry PowerPress is a popular WordPress plugin that enables podcast hosting and episode management directly within WordPress. A flaw in versions before 11.17.1 allows users with minimal permissions (Contributor role) to trigger server-side requests to arbitrary URLs without validation. An attacker can exploit this to read local files, probe internal network services, or access cloud metadata endpoints—potentially exposing sensitive configuration, credentials, or internal infrastructure details.
Technical details
The vulnerability is a server-side request forgery (SSRF) in the Podcast Episode Chapters URL handler. When a Contributor-level user edits their own podcast episode post and fills the "Chapters URL" field with a malicious URL, the plugin fetches that URL server-side via file_get_contents() without any validation—no URL scheme allowlisting, no internal IP blocking, and no SSRF guard (despite the plugin implementing such a guard on a related chapter-image fetch). The Chapters URL is stored verbatim and fetched again each time the post is opened in the editor, requiring no additional user interaction. An attacker can abuse this to perform local file inclusion (file:// URLs), probe internal HTTP services (localhost, private IPs), or query cloud metadata endpoints (169.254.169.254). The plugin version 11.17.1 onwards contains the fix; affected versions are 11.17 and earlier.
Affected products
- Blubrry PowerPress before 11.17.1
Timeline
- 2026-08-10: disclosed
- 2026-08-12: advisory