Vulnerability report

Exploited in the wild High confidence Not in CISA KEV

CVE-2020-36728

Adning Advertising Path Traversal

Tunafish / Adning Advertising · * to <= 1.5.5

Watch CVE-2020-36728 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 6.5 · Medium
Confidence
High
Exploit status
Exploited in the wild
EPSS
3.1%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2020-36728 is an unauthenticated vulnerability affecting Tunafish Adning Advertising. The Adning Advertising plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to file deletion via path traversal in versions up to, and including,...

Is it exploited?

Yes. Previdian tracks this CVE as a known exploited vulnerability. Confidence is high. Also confirmed by third-party sources.

Who is affected?

Tunafish / Adning Advertising * to <= 1.5.5.

What should we do?

Prioritize remediation. Validate affected assets and apply vendor fixes on an accelerated timeline.

Overview

Adning Advertising Path Traversal

The Adning Advertising plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to file deletion via path traversal in versions up to, and including, 1.5.5.

This allows unauthenticated attackers to delete arbitrary files which can be used to reset and gain full control of a site.

tunafish Affected
Adning Advertising
Through 1.5.5
Published
07 Jun 2023
Exploitation Reported
05 Jan 2026
Attack vector
Remote
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None

Tags

nuclei_scanner

CVE References

Exploitation evidence

Why Previdian marks this CVE as exploited

Third-party attestation and first-party sensor observation are shown separately so teams can judge the evidence chain.

Exploited in the wild

The Shadowserver

Recorded 05 Jan 2026

A trusted third party reported exploitation.

Proof of concept available

Nuclei Templates

Recorded 12 Jun 2026

Public scanner or PoC coverage increases practical exploitability.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Per-source evidence links for KEV attestations are available through the Previdian Pro API.

Learn about Pro API access
Source Added
The Shadowserver First 2026-01-05 00:00 UTC

Detection

Operational artifacts and observed signals

Make the evidence actionable in scanner, SOC, and edge-control workflows.

Observed signals

Request targets
User-Agents
Callback hosts
0
0
0

Request targets and User-Agents available in Pro. Callback host details available in Enterprise.

Virtual patch status

No Previdian virtual patch is currently available. Future rules ship for ModSecurity, Cloudflare, and AWS WAF.

Learn about virtual patches →

Scanner Artifacts

Scanner and exploit-framework references linked to this CVE.

Scanner Reference Detected
Nuclei https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/main/http/cves/2020/CVE-2020-36728.yaml 02 Jun 2025

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

6.5 Medium

Potential damage if exploited. Separate from whether attackers are using it.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N

EPSS

3.1%

Estimated chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Previdian's warning comes from evidence, not this score.

Weaknesses

Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') CWE-22

Potential Proof of Concepts

These PoCs are unverified and could contain malware. Use at your own risk.

WordPress Plugin Adning Advertising < 1.5.6 - Arbitrary File Upload

nuclei · Created Unknown

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

  1. 14:20 UTC

    Public PoC available

    Public proof-of-concept code published

  2. 00:00 UTC

    Added to Previdian KEV Feed

    High-confidence, third-party attested exploitation

  3. 14:11 UTC

    Nuclei template available

    Scanner coverage available

  4. 12:43 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  5. 13:25 UTC

    CVE ID reserved

    Identifier reserved by the CNA

Pro API

Automate this intelligence

Confidence, exploit status, sensor telemetry, PoCs, scanner integrations, mentions, and tags are available programmatically for VM, SOC, and CTI workflows.

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  • Evidence confidence and provenance
  • First-party sensor telemetry
  • PoC and scanner references
  • Affected versions and enrichment
  • Automation-ready JSON delivery

GET /api/v2/pro/kevs/CVE-2020-36728

Sample API response 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2020-36728",
  "confidence": "High",
  "cvss_score": 6.5,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.03133,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}