CVE-2016-6897
MEDIUMEPSS 98th pctlDescription
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the wp_ajax_update_plugin function in wp-admin/includes/ajax-actions.php in WordPress before 4.6 allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of subscribers for /dev/random read operations by leveraging a late call to the check_ajax_referer function, a related issue to CVE-2016-6896.
How to fix
TridentStack Control can deploy fixes like this automatically across your Windows, macOS, and Linux fleet. See how it works
Remediation is compiled from vendor and distribution security advisories. Always confirm against the linked source for your exact version and platform.
CVSS v3 Vector
Exploitability
Impact
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Exploit Intelligence
Very high risk: more likely to be exploited than 98% of all known CVEs.
References
Related Vulnerabilities
Other CWE-352 (Cross-Site Request Forgery) vulnerabilities, ordered by exploit likelihood. View all
| CVE | Severity | CVSS | EPSS | Exploited | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVE-2016-6277 | High | 8.8 | 100% | KEV | - |
| CVE-2014-0054 | Medium | 6.8 | 91% | - | Fix |
| CVE-2013-6429 | Medium | 6.8 | 90% | - | Fix |
| CVE-2022-41622 | High | 8.8 | 88% | - | - |
| CVE-2018-7700 | High | 8.8 | 75% | - | - |
| CVE-2015-2295 | Medium | 6.8 | 66% | - | - |
Common questions
How do I fix CVE-2016-6897?
Upgrade wordpress on debian 11 to 4.6.1+dfsg-1 or later.
Is CVE-2016-6897 being actively exploited?
Not that we know of. CVE-2016-6897 is not in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. Its EPSS score of 28.3% is the estimated probability that it will be exploited in the next 30 days. That is higher than 98% of all scored CVEs.
How severe is CVE-2016-6897?
CVE-2016-6897 has a CVSS v3 base score of 6.5, rated medium. CVSS rates the technical impact if the vulnerability is exploited, not how likely that is, so weigh it alongside the exploit-prediction score when you decide what to patch first.
What does CVE-2016-6897 affect?
Published advisories record a fix for wordpress (Debian). Only products with a sourced advisory are listed, so treat this as what we can cite rather than a complete inventory.
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This product uses NVD data but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS scores courtesy of FIRST.org (https://www.first.org/epss). Source: CISA KEV Catalog. Data as of 2026-05-13.