CyberSecBulletin
CVE-2026-87112NVD status: Deferred

QA Assistants – Driven by data: Deserialization of Untrusted Data

Published Updated By the CyberSecBulletin desk

CVE-2026-87112 is a high-severity deserialization of untrusted data vulnerability in QA Assistants – Driven by data from QuarkA, with a CVSS 3.1 base score of 8.8 out of 10. It can be exploited remotely over the network by an attacker with a low-privileged account, without any action from a user. Affected QA Assistants – Driven by data versions: 5.3.0 and earlier. The record does not name a fixed version, so check the vendor advisory. There is no confirmed exploitation so far. EPSS estimates a 0.8% chance of exploitation within 30 days, higher than 57% of scored CVEs.

Next patch cycle

High severity with no evidence of exploitation so far.

What to do

  1. Check which version of QA Assistants – Driven by data you run against the affected versions below, and install the vendor's latest release.

Affected products and versions

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed in
QuarkaQA Assistants – Driven by data5.3.0 and earlierNot stated

Version data comes from the organisation that assigned the CVE. Confirm against the vendor advisory before deciding you are unaffected.

How the severity score breaks down

Attack vector
NetworkCan be exploited remotely over a network, including the internet.
Attack complexity
LowNo special conditions are needed; the attack works reliably.
Privileges required
LowA basic user account is enough.
User interaction
NoneNo action by a victim is required.
Scope
UnchangedImpact stays within the vulnerable component.
Confidentiality
HighAll data handled by the component can be read.
Integrity
HighData or code can be modified at will.
Availability
HighThe component can be taken down completely.

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H. Scored by CNA (wordfence.com).

Official description

The QA Assistants – Driven by data plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to PHP Object Injection in all versions up to, and including, 5.3.0 via the 'dlevent_ver' parameter. This is due to unrestricted PHP deserialization via wrap_unserialize_static() calling unserialize() without an allowed_classes restriction, combined with serialize_escape() failing to sanitize path traversal sequences in the raw_name parameter. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject a PHP Object. The Guzzle FileCookieJar gadget present in the plugin's bundled Composer dependencies can be leveraged to perform an Arbitrary File Write, writing attacker-controlled content to an attacker-chosen filename, which can result in Remote Code Execution. Exploitation requires triggering the qahm_cron_data_manage scheduled event via wp-cron.php to invoke the deserialization sink against a planted queue file, but this endpoint requires no authentication and fires automatically on a two-minute schedule.

Source: the CVE record as published by its numbering authority, via NVD and CVE.org.

The underlying weakness: Deserialization of Untrusted Data

The product deserializes untrusted data without sufficiently ensuring that the resulting data will be valid.

How developers prevent this class of flaw

  • If available, use the signing/sealing features of the programming language to assure that deserialized data has not been tainted. For example, a hash-based message authentication code (HMAC) could be used to ensure that data has not been modified.
  • When deserializing data, populate a new object rather than just deserializing. The result is that the data flows through safe input validation and that the functions are safe.
  • Explicitly define a final object() to prevent deserialization.

More Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerabilities (CWE-502)

Timeline

  1. CVE record published.
  2. CISA published its SSVC assessment (exploitation: none, automatable: no, technical impact: total).
  3. Record last changed materially (score, affected products, status or references).

References

Other references

Recent Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerabilities

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