CVE-2026-9834
HighCVSS 7.2Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
High risk84th percentile — higher than 84% of all known CVEs
Summary
The WP Database Backup plugin for WordPress up to version 7.11 is vulnerable to OS command injection via the `wp_db_exclude_table` parameter. An authenticated attacker with administrator privileges can inject malicious data that is directly concatenated into the `mysqldump` command without proper escaping, allowing arbitrary command execution on the server.
Risk Assessment
The risk for the organization includes full server compromise by an attacker with administrator access, potentially leading to data theft, malware installation, or service disruption.
Recommendation
Immediately update the WP Database Backup plugin to the latest available version that fixes this vulnerability. Until the update is applied, restrict access to the WordPress admin panel to trusted users only.
Original NVD description (English source)
The WP Database Backup – Unlimited Database & Files Backup by Backup for WP plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to OS Command Injection in all versions up to and including 7.11 via the `wp_db_exclude_table` parameter. This is due to the direct concatenation of user-supplied `$_POST['wp_db_exclude_table']` values into the `mysqldump` shell command string in the `mysqldump()` function of `includes/admin/class-wpdb-admin.php` without wrapping them in `escapeshellarg()`—every other argument in the same command (DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD, host, filename, DB_NAME) is properly escaped, making the exclude-table values the sole exception—and because the only applied filtering, `sanitize_text_field()` via `recursive_sanitize_text_field()`, strips HTML tags but leaves shell metacharacters such as `;`, `|`, `` ` ``, and `$()` intact. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with administrator-level access and above, to execute arbitrary operating system commands on the server, potentially enabling full remote code execution. The injection is stored: malicious values submitted through the plugin settings form are persisted to the WordPress options table via `update_option('wp_db_exclude_table')` and later retrieved with `get_option()` and passed unsanitized to `shell_exec()` whenever a backup operation runs.