{"id":"CVE-2026-104022","url":"https://www.cyber-defence.io/tools/cve/CVE-2026-104022","generatedAt":"2026-10-28T02:58:14.814Z","title":"The Academy LMS – AI Course Builder, Quizzes, Certificates & eLearning plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 4.0.3.","description":"The Academy LMS – AI Course Builder, Quizzes, Certificates & eLearning plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 4.0.3. This is due to the `add_child()` function calling `add_role('academy_student')` on any existing account resolved from the attacker-supplied `email` parameter before `Store::link()` validates the guardian-ward relationship, and failing to roll back that role write when `Store::link()` returns a `WP_Error`. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers with the `academy_guardian` role or higher to elevate any existing WordPress account — including their own — to the `academy_student` role, gaining `edit_posts` (Contributor-equivalent) capabilities and, when the student file-upload setting is enabled, `upload_files` (Author-equivalent) capabilities not granted to the guardian role. When a guardian supplies their own email address, `email_exists()` resolves to their own user ID, causing `Store::link()` to reject the self-link, but because the `add_role()` call has already executed and is never reversed, the academy_student role grant on their own account persists permanently.","published":"2026-10-10T03:17:04.000Z","lastModified":"2026-10-13T13:30:22.000Z","status":"Deferred","sourceIdentifier":"security@wordfence.com","cvss":{"version":"3.1","score":5.4,"severity":"MEDIUM","vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N"},"cwe":["CWE-269"],"affected":[],"epss":{"score":0.00125,"percentile":0.02171,"date":"2026-10-26","history":[{"date":"2026-10-10","score":0.00125,"percentile":0.01956}]},"kev":{"listed":false},"exploits":{"count":0,"verified":false,"firstPublished":null,"source":"Exploit-DB (https://gitlab.com/exploit-database/exploitdb)","entries":[]},"verdict":{"level":"low","text":"Lower severity and a low EPSS score (0.13%). Track it; it rarely justifies an emergency change on its own."},"changes":[{"kind":"new","label":"New CVE","at":"2026-10-10T03:17:04.000Z","detail":{"score":"5.4","severity":"MEDIUM","publishedAt":"2026-10-10T03:17:03.953Z"},"summary":"New CVE, medium severity (CVSS 5.4)."}],"references":[{"url":"https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/academy/tags/4.0.2/includes/guardian/rest-api.php#L138","source":"security@wordfence.com"},{"url":"https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/academy/tags/4.0.2/includes/guardian/rest-api.php#L160","source":"security@wordfence.com"},{"url":"https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/academy/tags/4.0.2/includes/guardian/rest-api.php#L85","source":"security@wordfence.com"},{"url":"https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/academy/tags/4.0.2/includes/guardian/store.php#L39","source":"security@wordfence.com"},{"url":"https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?reponame=&old=3734598%40academy&new=3734598%40academy","source":"security@wordfence.com"},{"url":"https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/a54dd9e5-59e7-4655-9f64-e198deda1383?source=cve","source":"security@wordfence.com"}],"sources":{"nvd":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-104022","epss":"https://www.first.org/epss/","kev":"https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog","exploitdb":"https://www.exploit-db.com/"},"licence":"CC BY 4.0 — link back to the CVE Explorer if you publish the results; upstream data remains subject to its own terms."}