Breaking

OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol Uncovers Pre-Auth RCE in WordPress Core for About $25 in Compute

July 20, 2026 at 10:17 EDT

Security
Foundation Models
AI Agents

A security researcher used OpenAI's newly previewed GPT-5.6 Sol model to discover and validate a critical pre-authentication remote code execution vulnerability in WordPress core, spending roughly $25 in compute over about ten hours—a result that is sharpening debate over how frontier models could reshape vulnerability research.

AI-Assisted Vulnerability Research · GPT-5.6 Sol

A $25 AI Run Found a Critical WordPress Core RCE

A security researcher pointed OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol at WordPress source code and, in about ten hours for roughly $25 in compute, chained a novel pre-authentication remote code execution exploit — dubbed wp2shell — in a platform that powers over half a billion sites.

~$25

Total compute cost for the full exploit run

~10 hrs

To surface the SQL injection entry point

500M+

Sites running WordPress worldwide

Parallel agents run in Ultra mode

Cost In Perspective

The whole exploit cost ~half a week of a $200/mo tier

~$25

this run

~$50

one week's usage

The wp2shell Chain — Unauthenticated Request → Full Takeover

CVE-2026-63030

REST API batch-route confusion — validation & execution diverge

→

CVE-2026-60137

SQL injection in WP_Query via author__not_in

→

POST-EXPLOITATION

Cache poisoning, temp admin rights, new admin + backdoor plugin

Affected & Fixed Versions

At risk (unpatched)

6.9.0 – 6.9.4
7.0.0 – 7.0.1

Patched

6.9.5
7.0.2

Exploitation and public exploits appeared in the wild shortly after disclosure — defenders have little slack.

Promise

A single researcher chained a rare pre-auth core RCE for a modest compute bill — and the same models can be folded into automated defensive auditing.

Caution

The exploit chain was so intricate humans needed time to validate it, and complex tasks quickly exhaust lower-tier quotas — tempering "cheap for everyone" claims.

Continue reading

The rest of this article is for AI News Blitz readers. Choose an option below to keep reading.