Vulnerability · Published Feb 25, 2026 · Assigned by Wordfence

CVE-2026-2301Post Duplicator <= 3.0.8 - Missing Authorization to Authenticated (Contributor+) Protected Post Meta Insertion via 'customMetaData' Parameter

Medium 4.3

In plain English

A medium-severity missing authorization in Post Duplicator from metaphorcreations. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.2% (higher than 15% of all known vulnerabilities).

Severity (CVSS 3.1)4.3Medium

Exploit odds (30 days)0.2%top 84.7% of all CVEs

Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: none

Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

The Post Duplicator plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized arbitrary protected post meta insertion in all versions up to, and including, 3.0.8. This is due to the `duplicate_post()` function in `includes/api.php` using `$wpdb->insert()` directly to the `wp_postmeta` table instead of WordPress's standard `add_post_meta()` function, which would call `is_protected_meta()` to prevent lower-privileged users from setting protected meta keys (those starting with `_`). This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Contributor-level access and above, to inject arbitrary protected post meta keys such as `_wp_page_template`, `_wp_attached_file`, and other sensitive meta keys on duplicated posts via the `customMetaData` JSON array parameter in the `/wp-json/post-duplicator/v1/duplicate-post` REST API endpoint.

Affected products (as reported)

Vendor	Product	Versions
metaphorcreations	Post Duplicator	0 – through 3.0.8

Weakness: CWE-862 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N

In plain English

Official description

Affected products (as reported)

References