# Phoenix Media Rename <= 3.13.5 - Authenticated (Author+) PHP Object Injection via Post Meta

- **ID:** WPSEC-2026-2116
- **Plugin:** Phoenix Media Rename (`phoenix-media-rename`), https://wordpress.org/plugins/phoenix-media-rename/
- **Affected versions:** all versions before 3.13.6
- **Fixed in:** 3.13.6 (Update to 3.13.6 or later.)
- **Severity:** High 7.5 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H)
- **Weakness:** CWE-502
- **Usage among sites WPSec scans:** plugin Low, affected versions Low (as of 2026-10-30)
- **Attack surface analysis:** https://attacksurface.wpsec.com/plugin/phoenix-media-rename
- **Fix released:** 2026-10-29
- **Published:** 2026-10-30
- **URL:** https://wpsec.com/vuln/WPSEC-2026-2116/

## Description

The Phoenix Media Rename plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to PHP Object Injection via post meta values in all versions up to, and including, 3.13.5. This is due to the unserialize_deep() function, which runs when a media file is renamed and the plugin updates references to it. The function calls unserialize() over and over on raw post meta values with no class restriction, so it also unpacks values that WordPress serialized a second time when it stored them. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Author-level access and above, to inject a PHP Object: they add a custom field holding a serialized object to a post that mentions one of their own media files, then rename that file. No known POP chain is present in the vulnerable software. If a POP chain is present via an additional plugin or theme installed on the target system, it could allow the attacker to delete arbitrary files, retrieve sensitive data, or execute code.

## References

- https://wpsec.com/vuln/WPSEC-2026-2116/
- https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/phoenix-media-rename/tags/3.13.6/
- https://wordpress.org/plugins/phoenix-media-rename/

Source: WPSec, https://wpsec.com/vuln/WPSEC-2026-2116/

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.