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Fencer Vulns
critical 9.8

CVE-2019-19589 json

The Lever PDF Embedder plugin 4.4 for WordPress does not block the distribution of polyglot PDF documents that are valid JAR archives.

published 2019-12-05 6 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2019-9205

cvss
9.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.8%
EPSS 1.8% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 78%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The Lever PDF Embedder plugin 4.4 for WordPress does not block the distribution of polyglot PDF documents that are valid JAR archives. Note: It has been argued that "The vulnerability reported in PDF Embedder Plugin is not valid as the plugin itself doesn't control or manage the file upload process. It only serves the uploaded PDF files and the responsibility of uploading PDF file remains with the Site owner of Wordpress installation, the upload of PDF file is managed by Wordpress core and not by PDF Embedder Plugin. Control & block of polyglot file is required to be taken care at the time of upload, not on showing the file. Moreover, the reference mentions retrieving the files from the browser cache and manually renaming it to jar for executing the file. That refers to a two step non-connected steps which has nothing to do with PDF Embedder.

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
Proof of concept is public
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
total
Assessed
2 y ago

Exploit prediction

1.77% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 78% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • sejalivre.org https://sejalivre.org/usando-arquivos-polyglot-para-distribuir-malwares/ referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CISA ADP 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CNA 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 7.5 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Affected products

  • wp-pdf pdf_embedder

Classification

Weakness
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.