Vulnerability report

Exploited in the wild High confidence Not in CISA KEV

CVE-2022-21661

SQL injection in WordPress

WordPress-develop · affected before 5.8.3

Watch CVE-2022-21661 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 8.0 · High
Confidence
High
Exploit status
Exploited in the wild
EPSS
97.8%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2022-21661 is SQL injection in WordPress. WordPress is a free and open-source content management system written in PHP and paired with a MariaDB database. Due to improper sanitization in WP_Query, there can be...

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?

wordpress-develop affected before 5.8.3.

What should we do?

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

Overview

WordPress is a free and open-source content management system written in PHP and paired with a MariaDB database

WordPress is a free and open-source content management system written in PHP and paired with a MariaDB database. Due to improper sanitization in WP_Query, there can be cases where SQL injection is possible through plugins or themes that use it in a certain way. This has been patched in WordPress version 5.8.3.

Older affected versions are also fixed via security release, that go back till 3.7.37. We strongly recommend that you keep auto-updates enabled. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

WordPress Affected
wordpress-develop
Before 5.8.3
View vendor advisory (opens in new tab)
Published
06 Jan 2022
Exploitation Reported
06 Jan 2022
Attack vector
Remote
Complexity
High
Privileges
High
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 06 Jan 2022

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 2022-01-06 22:50 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/2022/CVE-2022-21661.yaml 25 Apr 2025

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

8.0 High

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

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

EPSS

97.8%

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

Weaknesses

Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection') CWE-89

Potential Proof of Concepts

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

WordPress <5.8.3 - SQL Injection

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

    Nuclei template available

    Scanner coverage available

  3. 22:50 UTC

    Added to Previdian KEV Feed

    High-confidence, third-party attested exploitation

  4. 22:50 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  5. 00:00 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-2022-21661

Free JSON includes basic KEV fields 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2022-21661",
  "confidence": "High",
  "cvss_score": 8.0,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.97795,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}