WP Database Backup <= 7.11 - Authenticated (Administrator+) OS Command Injection via 'wp_db_exclude_table' Parameter

7.2
Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in a Command ('Command Injection')
CVE CVE-2026-9834
CVSS 7.2 (High)
Publicly Published July 1, 2026
Last Updated July 2, 2026
Researcher Irwan Kusuma - wanjay

Description

The WP Database Backup – Unlimited Database & Files Backup by Backup for WP plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to OS Command Injection in all versions up to and including 7.11 via the `wp_db_exclude_table` parameter. This is due to the direct concatenation of user-supplied `$_POST['wp_db_exclude_table']` values into the `mysqldump` shell command string in the `mysqldump()` function of `includes/admin/class-wpdb-admin.php` without wrapping them in `escapeshellarg()`—every other argument in the same command (DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD, host, filename, DB_NAME) is properly escaped, making the exclude-table values the sole exception—and because the only applied filtering, `sanitize_text_field()` via `recursive_sanitize_text_field()`, strips HTML tags but leaves shell metacharacters such as `;`, `|`, `` ` ``, and `$()` intact. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with administrator-level access and above, to execute arbitrary operating system commands on the server, potentially enabling full remote code execution. The injection is stored: malicious values submitted through the plugin settings form are persisted to the WordPress options table via `update_option('wp_db_exclude_table')` and later retrieved with `get_option()` and passed unsanitized to `shell_exec()` whenever a backup operation runs.

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Vulnerability Details for WP Database Backup – Unlimited Database & Files Backup by Backup for WP

Software Type Plugin
Software Slug wp-database-backup (view on wordpress.org)
Patched? Yes
Remediation Update to version 7.12, or a newer patched version
Affected Version
  • <= 7.11
Patched Version
  • 7.12

Recent vulnerabilities in WP Database Backup – Unlimited Database & Files Backup by Backup for WP

# Title CVE ID CVSS Researchers Date
1 WP Database Backup – Unlimited Database & Files Backup by Backup for WP <= 7.3 - Unauthenticated Database Back-Up Exposure CVE-2024-12330 7.5 Noah Stead (TurtleBurg) January 8, 2025
2 WP Database Backup <= 5.8.3 - Authenticated (Admin+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting CVE-2022-2271 5.5 Raad Haddad August 16, 2022
3 WP Database Backup <= 5.9 - Authenticated (Admin+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting 5.5 August 9, 2022
4 WP Database Backup <= 5.5 - Unauthenticated Information Disclosure CVE-2020-7241 7.5 V1n1v131r4 February 6, 2020
5 WP Database Backup < 5.2 - Unauthenticated OS Command Injection CVE-2019-25224 9.8 April 24, 2019
6 WP Database Backup <= 5.1.1 - Cross-Site Scripting CVE-2019-14949 6.1 April 22, 2019
7 WP Database Backup <= 5.1.2 - Unauthenticated Settings Update to Remote Code Execution 9.8 March 24, 2019
8 WP Database Backup <= 4.3.5 - Cross-Site Request Forgery 8.8 Tristan October 21, 2016
9 WP Database Backup <= 4.3.2 - Cross-Site Request Forgery CVE-2016-10874 8.8 August 4, 2016
10 WP Database Backup <= 4.3.2 - Cross-Site Scripting CVE-2016-10873 6.1 August 3, 2016

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