CVE-2015-10138

CriticalPublic PoC

Published: 19 July 2025

Published

19 July 2025

Modified

16 December 2025

KEV Added

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Patch

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CVSS Score v3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS Score 0.7925 99.1th percentile

Risk Priority 67 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2015-10138 is a critical-severity Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type (CWE-434) vulnerability in Lynton Reed Work The Flow File Upload. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 0.9% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SI-10 (Information Input Validation) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation).

Deeper analysis

CVE-2015-10138 is an arbitrary file upload vulnerability in the Work The Flow File Upload plugin for WordPress, affecting versions up to and including 2.5.2. The issue arises from missing file type validation in the bundled jQuery-File-Upload-9.5.0 server and test files, enabling attackers to upload arbitrary files to the affected site's server. This flaw is associated with CWE-434 (Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type) and carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H).

Unauthenticated attackers can exploit this vulnerability remotely with low complexity and no user interaction required. By uploading malicious files, they can potentially achieve remote code execution on the server, granting high-impact access to confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Advisories and patches, including WordPress plugin trac changesets 1127456 and 1127457, along with reports from WPScan and Packet Storm Security, indicate mitigation through updating the plugin beyond version 2.5.2 to address the file validation deficiency.

EU & UK References

🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2015-9397

Vulnerability details

The Work The Flow File Upload plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to arbitrary file uploads due to missing file type validation in the jQuery-File-Upload-9.5.0 server and test files in versions up to, and including, 2.5.2. This makes it possible for…

unauthenticated attackers to upload arbitrary files on the affected sites server which may make remote code execution possible.

CWE(s): CWE-434

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access

Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.

attack.mitre.org →

T1505.003 Web Shell Persistence

Adversaries may backdoor web servers with web shells to establish persistent access to systems.

attack.mitre.org →

Why these techniques?

Arbitrary file upload in public-facing WordPress plugin directly enables exploitation of public-facing apps (T1190) and deployment of web shells for RCE (T1505.003).

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v18.1