# File Manager Pro – Filester <= 2.1.4 - Authenticated (Administrator+) Missing Authorization to Arbitrary Plugin Installation and Activation

- **ID:** WPSEC-2026-1784
- **Plugin:** File Manager Pro – Filester (`filester`), https://wordpress.org/plugins/filester/
- **Affected versions:** all versions before 2.1.5
- **Fixed in:** 2.1.5 (Update to 2.1.5 or later.)
- **Severity:** Medium 6.6 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H)
- **Weakness:** CWE-862
- **Usage among sites WPSec scans:** plugin Low, affected versions Low (as of 2026-10-27)
- **Attack surface analysis:** https://attacksurface.wpsec.com/plugin/filester
- **Fix released:** 2026-10-26
- **Published:** 2026-10-27
- **URL:** https://wpsec.com/vuln/WPSEC-2026-1784/

## Description

The Filester plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized plugin installation and activation via the yay_recommended_upgrade_plugin and yay_recommended_activate_plugin AJAX actions in all versions up to, and including, 2.1.4 due to a missing capability check; the handlers only verify a nonce. The nonce is exposed on the Recommended Plugins page, which requires manage_options. On multisite installations this makes it possible for authenticated site administrators, who lack the install_plugins and activate_plugins capabilities, to install plugins from arbitrary package URLs and activate them. This can lead to remote code execution.

## References

- https://wpsec.com/vuln/WPSEC-2026-1784/
- https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/filester/tags/2.1.5/
- https://wordpress.org/plugins/filester/

Source: WPSec, https://wpsec.com/vuln/WPSEC-2026-1784/

License: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Free to use, share and adapt, also commercially, if you credit WPSec and link to this advisory.