Executive brief
SmartAIPress is a WordPress plugin that integrates AI capabilities into content creation. A vulnerability in the plugin allows subscriber-level users to trigger an AJAX action that fetches arbitrary URLs without validation, enabling attackers to read internal network resources or external content on behalf of the WordPress site. This could expose sensitive internal systems, credentials, or data accessible from the server.
Technical details
The plugin contains a Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability in its AJAX action handler `smartaipress_openai_upload_and_set_featured_image`. The vulnerable code fails to perform two critical checks: (1) it does not verify user capabilities before executing the AJAX action, and (2) it does not validate or sanitize user-supplied URLs before making server-side requests to them. An attacker with subscriber-level access can supply a malicious URL parameter to trigger arbitrary HTTP requests from the server. This allows reading responses from internal services, cloud metadata endpoints, or external resources. The attack vector is network-based and requires only subscriber-level authentication, a low bar in many WordPress installations. No patch has been released as of the advisory date.
Affected products
- SmartAIPress SmartAIPress <= 1.2.0
Timeline
- 2026-08-27: disclosed
- 2026-08-29: advisory