Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
This affects a CleanTalk WordPress security plugin through missing authorization checks. A logged-in low-privilege user, such as a subscriber, could trigger administrative AJAX functions and potentially delete or upload files. That can threaten site integrity, confidentiality, and availability.
Executive priority
Treat as high priority for WordPress environments with user registration, customer portals, or many low-privilege accounts. The business risk is unauthorized file manipulation on public websites, potentially affecting trust, uptime, and data exposure.
Technical view
CVE-2020-36698 is a CWE-862 missing authorization issue in Security & Malware scan by CleanTalk versions up to 2.50. Sources describe missing capability checks on several AJAX actions plus nonce disclosure in the admin dashboard source, enabling authenticated subscriber-level users to call sensitive functions.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely on WordPress sites running the affected CleanTalk plugin at version 2.50 or earlier and allowing untrusted or broadly assigned subscriber-level accounts.
Exploitation context
The provided sources do not show CISA KEV listing or confirmed active exploitation. The issue is remotely reachable over the network but requires an authenticated WordPress account with subscriber-level permissions or higher.
Researcher notes
The source bundle identifies the root cause and impact but does not provide detailed affected-version metadata beyond <=2.50 or a specific fixed version. Avoid assuming unauthenticated exploitation; the documented precondition is authenticated subscriber-level access.
Mitigation direction
- Inventory WordPress sites for the affected CleanTalk plugin and version.
- Update the plugin according to CleanTalk or WordPress.org guidance.
- Disable the plugin if an affected installation cannot be updated promptly.
- Remove unnecessary low-privilege WordPress accounts and review registration settings.
- Restrict administrative access paths where operationally feasible.
Validation and detection
- Confirm whether the plugin is installed and at version 2.50 or earlier.
- Verify the installed version after remediation against vendor guidance.
- Review WordPress user lists for unexpected subscriber-level accounts.
- Review application logs for suspicious authenticated AJAX activity.
- Check for unexpected file uploads, deletions, or integrity changes.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-862: Authorization and privilege behavior lookup
Authorization weaknesses can support privilege escalation and valid-account review, depending on exploit path. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2020-36698 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- High
- CVSS
- 8.8 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H2.85.9Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
8.8HighVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/0fb9b039-eb04-4c27-89eb-1932c9c31962?source=cveCVE reference
- https://blog.nintechnet.com/multiple-vulnerabilities-fixed-in-security-malware-scan-by-cleantalk-plugin/CVE reference
- https://wpscan.com/vulnerability/23960f42-dfc1-4951-9169-02d889283f01CVE reference
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Missing Authorization
Missing Authorization represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.