Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
WPGraphQL 1.3.5 can let an unauthenticated internet user consume server resources until the WordPress site becomes unavailable. The business risk is downtime, degraded publishing or customer-facing services, and operational load on hosting and database resources.
Executive priority
Prioritize within the current vulnerability cycle for public WordPress sites, faster for revenue, support, or publishing-critical properties. The main impact is availability, not data theft, based on the supplied CVSS vector and description.
Technical view
The issue is a CWE-770 resource exhaustion flaw in WPGraphQL 1.3.5. Public sources describe batched GraphQL requests with duplicated fields causing out-of-memory conditions and MySQL connection errors. CVSS 4.0 is 8.7, with network attack vector, low complexity, no privileges, and high availability impact.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely on WordPress sites running WPGraphQL 1.3.5 with a publicly reachable GraphQL endpoint. Evidence in the supplied sources names only version 1.3.5, so do not assume other versions are affected without vendor confirmation.
Exploitation context
A public ExploitDB reference exists, but the source bundle does not show CISA KEV listing or confirmed active exploitation. Treat exploitability as publicly documented, while active exploitation remains unconfirmed from the provided evidence.
Researcher notes
Keep analysis scoped to WPGraphQL 1.3.5 unless additional vendor evidence expands affected versions. The available sources document public exploit material but not active exploitation. Patch details are not included in the bundle, so remediation should be verified against vendor guidance.
Mitigation direction
- Inventory WordPress sites for WPGraphQL 1.3.5.
- Check WPGraphQL and VulnCheck guidance for fixed versions or vendor mitigations.
- Prioritize remediation for internet-facing sites exposing GraphQL unauthenticated.
- Temporarily restrict public GraphQL access where business requirements allow.
- Monitor hosting and database capacity during remediation.
Validation and detection
- Confirm installed WPGraphQL version on each WordPress property.
- Identify whether the GraphQL endpoint is internet reachable.
- Review logs for unusual POST volume to GraphQL endpoints.
- Look for out-of-memory events or MySQL connection errors.
- Verify any vendor-recommended upgrade or mitigation in staging first.
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-770: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. 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-2021-47959 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
- 8.7 (4.0)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
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.
SSVC decision data
CVSS vector scores
2 official scoresWe 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:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N——VulnCheckCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H3.93.6VulnCheckVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 4.0 score
8.7HighVector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Base CVSS 3.1 score
7.5HighVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Vulnerability timeline
Timeline events are normalized from CVE metadata, CNA source timelines, ADP timelines, and KEV metadata when present.
- CVE reservedCVE Program
The CVE ID was reserved by the assigning CNA.
- CVE publishedCVE Program
The CVE record was published.
- CVE updatedCVE Program
The CVE record metadata indicates this as the latest update time.
ADP provider summaries
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- ExploitDB-49807CVE reference, VulnCheck · exploit
- Official Product HomepageCVE reference, VulnCheck · product
- VulnCheck Advisory: WordPress Plugin WPGraphQL 1.3.5 Denial of ServiceCVE reference, VulnCheck · third-party-advisory
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.
Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.