# 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`), https://wordpress.org/plugins/seo-by-rank-math/
- **Affected versions:** all versions before 1.0.281
- **Fixed in:** 1.0.281 (Update to 1.0.281 or later.)
- **Severity:** Medium 4.3 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N)
- **Weakness:** CWE-862
- **Usage among sites WPSec scans:** plugin Medium, affected versions Medium (as of 2026-11-04)
- **Attack surface analysis:** https://attacksurface.wpsec.com/plugin/seo-by-rank-math
- **Fix released:** 2026-11-03
- **Published:** 2026-11-04
- **URL:** https://wpsec.com/vuln/WPSEC-2026-2473/

## 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/

Source: WPSec, https://wpsec.com/vuln/WPSEC-2026-2473/

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.