Medium · published April 10, 2026
The Download Manager plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized modification of data due to a missing capability check on the `makeMediaPublic()` and `makeMediaPrivate()` functions in all versions up to, and including, 3.3.51. This is due to the functions only checking for `edit_posts` capability without verifying post ownership via `current_user_can('edit_post', $id)`, and the destructive operations executing before the admin-level check in `mediaAccessControl()`. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Contributor-level access and above, to strip all protection metadata (password, access restrictions, private flag) from any media file they do not own, making admin-protected files publicly accessible via their direct URL.