Rank Math SEO <= 1.0.280 - Authenticated (Subscriber+) Missing Authorization to Arbitrary Metadata Deletion via updateMeta REST Endpoint
- ID
- WPSEC-2026-2473
- Plugin
- Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings (seo-by-rank-math)
- Affected
- all versions before 1.0.281
- Remediation
- Update to 1.0.281 or later.
- CVSS 3.1
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
- Weakness
- CWE-862
- Usage
- Plugin Medium · Affected versions Medium among sites WPSec scans, 2026-11-04
- Attack surface
- Rank Math SEO on WPSec AttackSurface
- Fix released
- Published
Description
The Rank Math SEO plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized metadata deletion via the rankmath/v1/updateMeta REST endpoint in all versions up to, and including, 1.0.280. This is due to a missing check on the meta key: any submitted key with an empty value was passed directly to delete_metadata(), while only updates were limited to Rank Math's own 'rank_math_' prefixed keys. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with subscriber-level access and above, to delete arbitrary metadata, including core and third-party protected meta keys, from their own user profile (when the default 'Add SEO Controls' author setting is enabled), and for contributor-level users and above to do the same on posts they can edit and on terms they can edit.
References
- https://wpsec.com/vuln/WPSEC-2026-2473/
- https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/seo-by-rank-math/tags/1.0.281/
- https://wordpress.org/plugins/seo-by-rank-math/
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