CVE-2026-5032
CVE-2026-5032 — W3 Total Cache <= 2.9.3 - Unauthenticated Security Token Exposure via User-Agent Header
The W3 Total Cache plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to information exposure in all versions up to, and including, 2.9.3. This is due to the plugin bypassing its entire output buffering and processing pipeline when the request's User-Agent header contains "W3 Total Cache", which causes raw mfunc/mclude dynamic fragment HTML comments — including the W3TC_DYNAMIC_SECURITY security token — to be rendered in the page source. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to discover the value of the W3TC_DYNAMIC_SECURITY constant by sending a crafted User-Agent header to any page that contains developer-placed dynamic fragment tags, granted the site has the fragment caching feature enabled. With the leaked W3TC_DYNAMIC_SECURITY token, an attacker can craft valid mfunc tags to execute arbitrary PHP code on the server, achieving remote code execution.
Published Updated Sources: cvelistV5, Wordfence
Triage
Is it exploited, how likely is exploitation, what does it touch, and how severe do the scoring sources call it.
Exploitation
Unreported
no source claims exploitation
EPSS
3%
chance of exploitation in 30 days
CVSS base
7.5
HIGH
CISA SSVC assessment
Three decision points CISA publishes for the CVEs it assesses · SSVC 2.0.3. A stakeholder decision, not a severity score.
Exploitation
None
none · proof-of-concept · active
Automatable
Yes
can an attacker script all four kill-chain steps
Technical impact
Partial
partial · total control of the vulnerable component
Affected scope
The catalog records vendors and products as separate lists, not pairs, so which product belongs to which vendor is not something this page can say.
Vendors (1)
Products (1)
Every base score collected
Sources score independently and disagree; each row says who scored it and under which version.
| Score | Version | Severity | Expl. | Impact | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7.5 | CVSS 3.1 | HIGH | — | — | cvelistV5 |
Weakness & attack patterns
- CWE-200
Attack patterns reported against this CVE. The ATT&CK techniques below are inferred from its weakness class.
- T1562.003Impair Defenses: Impair Command History Logging
- T1574.006Hijack Execution Flow: Dynamic Linker Hijacking
- T1574.007Hijack Execution Flow: Path Interception by PATH Environment Variable
Detection
Read off the CVSS vector and the weakness class. Starting points, not rules we have tested.
- Search application, proxy, and WAF logs for requests touching /mclude.
References
3 on the record
Elsewhere on this site
Not in any source we poll
Listed rather than left blank: an empty field and an unmeasured one look identical on screen, and only one is a reason to look elsewhere.
- No confirmed IOCs, IP addresses, domains, file hashes, or malware artifacts supplied.
- No organization-specific asset inventory, compensating-control status, or patch deployment evidence supplied.
- No exploit packet captures, log samples, or incident case IDs supplied.