Automated AI pipeline discovers critical SQL injection vulnerability in Creative Mail WordPress plugin

Summary

Researchers at Intruder have demonstrated an automated vulnerability research pipeline that uses Large Language Models (LLMs) paired with code-slicing techniques to identify exploitable bugs. The system successfully identified a high-impact zero-day vulnerability in the Creative Mail WordPress plugin, which has over 300,000 users.

The discovered flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-3985, is a blind SQL injection that requires multiple chained requests to exploit. While the vulnerability was found via an automated process, it was also independently identified by Dmitrii Ignatyev of CleanTalk Inc., who reported the issue to Wordfence.

Technical details

The vulnerability exists within the Creative Mail plugin and can be triggered when WooCommerce is also installed on the WordPress instance. The exploitation requires a specific sequence of requests to extract data from the database.

The root cause was reportedly missed by the developer's own static analysis tools due to a coding error. Because the exploit relies on chaining several steps together, it is less likely to be caught by traditional, single-step scanning tools. Successful exploitation grants an attacker read access to the entire database, targeting sensitive information such as administrative password hashes and secret tokens.

The automated pipeline used to find this bug functions by running a code scanning engine (Joern) against a codebase to identify "interesting" patterns, such as unauthenticated attack surfaces like REST routes or AJAX calls. It then creates "program slices"-narrowing the focus to specific function call chains-to provide LLMs with high-signal context without overwhelming them with irrelevant code.

Affected products and fixed versions

The vulnerability specifically affects the Creative Mail plugin when used in environments where WooCommerce is also active.

Defender guidance

If your WordPress installation uses the Creative Mail plugin and has WooCommerce installed, take the following actions:

• Disable the plugin: The plugin has been pulled from the WordPress repository pending review. Disable it immediately to prevent potential database extraction.
• Monitor for suspicious activity: Look for unusual database queries or unauthorized access attempts targeting administrative accounts.
• Wait for a patch: Do not attempt to replace the plugin with a different tool until you have verified the security of your new configuration.

What remains unclear

While the researchers demonstrated a working exploitation agent that can spin up Docker containers to test its own code, the full scope of other vulnerabilities currently being found by this "vulnerability vending machine" is not yet public. Several other vulnerabilities are reportedly under disclosure with affected vendors.