Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
CVE-2022-2536 lets an unauthenticated visitor change or influence Transposh WordPress Translation behavior on affected sites. The business risk is content integrity: translated or displayed site data may be altered despite configured translation restrictions. The provided sources rate this medium severity, not a site takeover issue.
Executive priority
Prioritize remediation for public WordPress sites using this plugin, especially customer-facing or regulated content sites. The issue is medium severity, but public documentation and unauthenticated access make unmanaged exposure unacceptable for brand and content integrity.
Technical view
Affected Transposh WordPress Translation versions up to and including 1.0.9.6 insufficiently validate settings in the unauthenticated tp_translation AJAX path. With autotranslate enabled by default and a relevant sr0 request value, the plugin may ignore the configured “Who can translate” restriction. CVSS 3.1 is 5.3, CWE-285.
Likely exposure
Exposure is limited to WordPress sites running Transposh WordPress Translation at version 1.0.9.6 or earlier. Risk is higher where the plugin is active, autotranslate remains enabled, and translated content is publicly visible or business-sensitive.
Exploitation context
The source bundle includes public advisories and exploit listings, but KEV status is false and no provided source states active exploitation. Treat this as publicly documented and practical to validate, while avoiding assumptions about current exploitation campaigns.
Researcher notes
Keep this distinct from CVE-2022-2461. The key validation point is authorization enforcement in the tp_translation AJAX workflow, especially when autotranslate is enabled and sr0 is greater than zero. The bundle supports integrity impact only, not confidentiality or availability impact.
Mitigation direction
- Inventory WordPress sites for Transposh WordPress Translation and record installed versions.
- Check vendor or WordPress plugin guidance for a fixed release beyond 1.0.9.6.
- Disable or remove Transposh where no maintained fixed version is confirmed.
- Review translation permissions and disable autotranslate if it is not required.
- Monitor translated pages for unauthorized or unexpected content changes.
Validation and detection
- Confirm whether Transposh WordPress Translation is installed and active on each WordPress site.
- Verify the installed plugin version is later than 1.0.9.6 or otherwise vendor-confirmed fixed.
- Review plugin settings for autotranslate and “Who can translate” configuration.
- Check web logs for unexpected unauthenticated requests to the tp_translation AJAX action.
- Inspect recent translated content changes for unauthorized edits or anomalies.
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-285: 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 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-2022-2536 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
- Medium
- CVSS
- 5.3 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A: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.
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:L/A:N3.91.4Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
5.3MediumVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/c774b520-9d9f-4102-8564-49673d5ae1e6?source=cveCVE reference
- https://www.rcesecurity.com/2022/07/WordPress-Transposh-Exploiting-a-Blind-SQL-Injection-via-XSS/CVE reference
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/transposh-translation-filter-for-wordpress/trunk/transposh.php?rev=2682425#L1989CVE reference
- https://packetstormsecurity.com/files/168120/wptransposh1081-authz.txtCVE reference
- https://www.exploitalert.com/view-details.html?id=38949CVE reference
- https://www.wordfence.com/vulnerability-advisories-continued/#CVE-2022-2536CVE reference
- https://github.com/MrTuxracer/advisories/blob/master/CVEs/CVE-2022-2536.txtCVE reference
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/c774b520-9d9f-4102-8564-49673d5ae1e6CVE reference · x_transferred
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.
Improper Authorization
Improper Authorization represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.