# CVE-2026-78159

## Summary

- **CVE ID:** CVE-2026-78159
- **Severity:** CRITICAL
- **CVSS Score:** 9.8 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H)
- **CWE:** CWE-94
- **Published:** Sep 12, 2026
- **Last Modified:** Sep 14, 2026

## Description

The The Events Calendar plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Remote Code Execution in all versions up to, and including, 6.17.3 via the parse_array function. This is due to insufficient validation of the widget 'classes' map, allowing a plain-array payload to bypass the is_safe_widget_instance() object check and reach the callable-invocation sink in Element_Classes::parse_array(). This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to execute code on the server. Exploitation requires that the targeted site has comments enabled on tribe_events posts and that at least one comment containing a crafted wp:legacy-widget block has been submitted, as the attack chain is triggered when do_blocks() processes the single-event HTML including the comment area.

## Affected Products

- stellarwp — The Events Calendar (0)

## References

- [CNA](https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/cc2ccfeb-6df6-4fee-96a5-94f8dd131f7c?source=cve)
- [CNA](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/the-events-calendar/tags/6.17.3/common/src/Tribe/Utils/Element_Classes.php#L211)
- [CNA](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/the-events-calendar/tags/6.17.3/src/views/v2/components/messages.php#L30)
- [CNA](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/the-events-calendar/tags/6.17.3/src/Tribe/Views/V2/Widgets/Service_Provider.php#L279)
- [CNA](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/the-events-calendar/tags/6.17.3/src/Tribe/Views/V2/Template_Bootstrap.php#L214)
- [CNA](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?reponame=&old=3667866%40the-events-calendar&new=3667866%40the-events-calendar)
- [CNA](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?reponame=&old=3667867%40the-events-calendar&new=3667867%40the-events-calendar)

## Exploitation Prediction (EPSS)

- **EPSS Score:** 0.76%
- **EPSS Percentile:** 53.6

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_Exported from OnDuty AI Vulnerability Intelligence on 2026-09-18._