Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
This WordPress plugin flaw can let an unauthenticated attacker delete site posts or pages. For an organization using uListing, the main business risk is public website disruption, loss of listing content, and emergency restoration work. The source bundle does not show confirmed active exploitation.
Executive priority
Treat as urgent for any public WordPress site using uListing. Prioritize inventory and upgrade work because the impact is content destruction and site disruption, not data theft according to the provided CVSS vector.
Technical view
CVE-2021-4357 affects uListing versions up to and including 1.6.6. The issue is an authorization bypass caused by missing capability checks and a missing nonce in UlistingUserRole::save_role_api, enabling unauthenticated arbitrary post or page deletion. CVSS 3.1 is 9.1, with high integrity and availability impact.
Likely exposure
Exposure is limited to WordPress sites running the Directory Listings WordPress plugin uListing at version 1.6.6 or earlier. Internet-facing sites are the primary concern because the vulnerability is network-accessible and requires no authentication or user interaction.
Exploitation context
The source bundle lists no CISA KEV entry and provides no cited evidence of active exploitation. The vulnerability is still urgent because exploitation requires no account and can directly remove public site content.
Researcher notes
The affected function is UlistingUserRole::save_role_api. The described root cause maps to CWE-862: missing authorization. The CVSS vector indicates remote, low-complexity, unauthenticated exploitation with unchanged scope and no confidentiality impact, but high integrity and availability impact.
Mitigation direction
- Identify all WordPress sites using the uListing plugin.
- Upgrade uListing beyond affected versions using official vendor or WordPress.org guidance.
- If immediate upgrade is not possible, disable the plugin until remediated.
- Restore missing posts or pages from known-good backups if deletion occurred.
- Review vendor advisories before re-enabling affected functionality.
Validation and detection
- Confirm the installed uListing version on each WordPress site.
- Verify no site remains on uListing 1.6.6 or earlier.
- Review recent post and page deletion history for unexpected changes.
- Check WordPress and web logs for suspicious unauthenticated plugin requests.
- Confirm backups can restore deleted listing and page content.
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 lookupPrivilege behavior lookup
The CVE wording references privilege impact, so privilege escalation and authorization behavior review may help. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2021-4357 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
- Critical
- CVSS
- 9.1 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/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:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H3.95.2Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
9.1CriticalVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/71aa14b8-39bc-4b91-a7cf-9d203fdf44ea?source=cveCVE reference
- https://blog.nintechnet.com/wordpress-ulisting-plugin-fixed-multiple-critical-vulnerabilities/CVE reference
- https://wordpress.org/plugins/ulisting/#developersCVE reference
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?sfp_email=&sfph_mail=&reponame=&old=2456786%40ulisting&new=2456786%40ulisting&sfp_email=&sfph_mail=CVE 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.