GoKawiilAttackers exploit WordPress CVE-2026-87902 within hours of patch release
Security firm Patchstack says threat actors began exploiting a critical WordPress path traversal flaw, CVE-2026-87902, to write files that execute shell commands, after initial reconnaissance traffic surged tenfold. The bug, discovered by researcher Robert Ressl and rated 9.2/10 in severity, allows unauthenticated attackers to trick get_page_template() into loading arbitrary local PHP files under certain theme and server configurations. WordPress patched the issue in version 7.1.2 and backported fixes to branches as old as 4.7.