# CVE-2006-6017: Denial of service in n/a

> Authenticated users can crash the WordPress application by submitting malformed or large serialized objects in their profile.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 21 Nov 2006
- **Updated:** 3 Apr 2025
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2006-6017, GHSA-57qp-9wm8-fgr9

## What is CVE-2006-6017?

CVE-2006-6017 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Wordpress Wordpress, published on 21 Nov 2006. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

WordPress before 2.0.5 does not properly store a profile containing a string representation of a serialized object, which allows remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service (application crash) via a string that represents a (1) malformed or (2) large serialized object, because the object triggers automatic unserialization for display.

Weakness: CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2006-6017?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Wordpress Wordpress.

## How do I fix CVE-2006-6017?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2006-6017 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2006-6017 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Wordpress Wordpress

- [CVE-2026-63030](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-63030/): WordPress Core Interpretation Conflict (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-87902](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-87902/): WordPress Core Remote File Inclusion (high 8.1, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-60137](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-60137/): WordPress Core SQL Injection (medium 5.9, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2012-2399](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-2399/): Cross-site scripting in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2012-2400](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-2400/): Other in n/a (critical 10.0)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2006-6017 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2006-6017 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Wordpress Wordpress, published on 21 Nov 2006. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2006-6017 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Wordpress Wordpress. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2006-6017/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2006-6017/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2006-6017
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2006-6017
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2006-6017

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2006-6017/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.