Is CVE-2020-35948 actively exploited?

Yes. KEV Intelligence tracks CVE-2020-35948 as a known exploited vulnerability. Confidence is high.

What exploitation activity has KEV Intelligence observed?

KEV Intelligence has not yet recorded sensor-observed exploitation attempts for CVE-2020-35948. Our sensors continue to monitor for activity targeting this CVE.

Which versions are affected?

Version-level data is not available; KEV Intelligence tracks watchful.li XCloner Backup and Restore.

No. CVE-2020-35948 is not currently listed in CISA KEV.

Vulnerability report

Exploited in the wild High confidence Not in CISA KEV

CVE-2020-35948

XCloner Backup and Restore Remote Code Execution

watchful.li / XCloner Backup and Restore

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Severity: CVSS 9.9 · Critical
Confidence: High
Exploit status: Exploited in the wild
EPSS: 24.9%
First observed: —
Last observed: —

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2020-35948 is a vulnerability affecting watchful.li XCloner Backup and Restore. An issue was discovered in the XCloner Backup and Restore plugin before 4.2.13 for WordPress. It gave authenticated attackers the...

Is it exploited?

Yes. KEV Intelligence tracks this CVE as a known exploited vulnerability. Confidence is high.

Who is affected?

watchful.li / XCloner Backup and Restore.

What should we do?

Prioritize remediation. Validate affected assets and apply vendor fixes on an accelerated timeline.

Overview

An issue was discovered in the XCloner Backup and Restore plugin before 4.2.13 for WordPress

An issue was discovered in the XCloner Backup and Restore plugin before 4.2.13 for WordPress. It gave authenticated attackers the ability to modify arbitrary files, including PHP files. Doing so would allow an attacker to achieve remote code execution.

The xcloner_restore.php write_file_action could overwrite wp-config.php, for example. Alternatively, an attacker could create an exploit chain to obtain a database dump.

Published: 01 Jan 2021
Exploitation Reported: 22 Sep 2020
Attack vector: Remote
Complexity: Low
Privileges: Low
User interaction: None

CVE References

CVE Record CVE.org · CVE Record https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-35948
wordfence.com/blog/2020/09/critical-vulnerabilities-patche... wordfence.com · CVE Record https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2020/09/critical-vulnerabilities-patch...
wpscan.com/vulnerability/10412 wpscan.com · CVE Record https://wpscan.com/vulnerability/10412
packetstormsecurity.com/files/163336/WordPress-XCloner-4.2.12-Remote... packetstormsecurity.com · CVE Record http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/163336/WordPress-XCloner-4.2.12-...
GitHub — Hacker5preme/Exploits github.com · CVE Record https://github.com/Hacker5preme/Exploits/tree/main/Wordpress/CVE-2020...

Exploitation evidence

Why KEV Intelligence marks this CVE as exploited

Third-party attestation and first-party sensor observation are shown separately so teams can judge the evidence chain.

Exploited in the wild

Wordfence

Recorded 22 Sep 2020

Independent exploitation attestation added to the KEV Intelligence record.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Per-source evidence links for KEV attestations are available through the KEV Intelligence Pro API.

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Source	Added
Wordfence First	2020-09-22 13:28 UTC

Detection

Operational artifacts and observed signals

Make the evidence actionable in scanner, SOC, and edge-control workflows.

Observed signals

Request targets: 0
User-Agents: 0

Raw values available in Pro and Enterprise.

Scanner coverage

No scanner integrations recorded yet.

Virtual patch status

No KEV Intelligence virtual patch is currently available. Future rules ship for ModSecurity, Cloudflare, and AWS WAF.

Learn about virtual patches →

No detection artifacts or sensor request patterns are available for this CVE yet.

Check back as sensor telemetry and scanner integrations are updated.

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

9.9 Critical

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS

24.9%

Weaknesses

Incorrect Authorization CWE-863

All CVSS Scores

CVSS v3.1 9.9 Critical

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS v2.0 6.5 Medium

AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:P

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

01 Jan 2021
CVE published

Vulnerability disclosed publicly
01 Jan 2021
CVE ID reserved

Identifier reserved by the CNA
22 Sep 2020
Added to KEV Intelligence KEV Feed

High-confidence, third-party attested exploitation

Pro API

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Evidence confidence and provenance
First-party sensor telemetry
PoC and scanner references
Affected versions and enrichment
Automation-ready JSON delivery

GET /api/v2/pro/kevs/CVE-2020-35948

Free JSON includes basic KEV fields

{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2020-35948",
  "confidence": "High",
  "cvss_score": 9.9,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.24937,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}

Early warning alerts

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