CVE-2026-12165
The Contest Gallery – Upload & Vote Photos, Media, Sell with PayPal & Stripe plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 30.0.2 via the `RegistryUserRole` parameter.
Does this matter?
High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (0.40%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.
Description
The Contest Gallery – Upload & Vote Photos, Media, Sell with PayPal & Stripe plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 30.0.2 via the `RegistryUserRole` parameter. This is due to the plugin's admin menu being registered at the `edit_posts` capability level — granting Contributor-level users access to the plugin's admin pages and a valid `cg_admin` nonce — while the option-saving handler in `change-options-and-sizes.php` performs no `current_user_can()` capability check beyond `check_admin_referer('cg_admin')`, and the `RegistryUserRole` value is processed only through `sanitize_text_field()` and `htmlentities()` without restriction to an allowlist of permitted role names. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with author-level access and above, to overwrite the plugin's stored `RegistryUserRole` option with `administrator`, which the `cg_create_wp_user_from_google_user` function then reads back from the `contest_gal1ery_registry_and_login_options` database table without any allowlist validation and passes directly to `wp_update_user()`, effectively promoting a newly registered Google sign-in account to Administrator.
- CVSS 3.1
- 8.8 HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- EPSS
- 0.40% probability · 33th percentile
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-269
- Source
- security@wordfence.com
References
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/contest-gallery/tags/30.0.2/functions/google/cg-create-wp-user-from-google-user.php#L169
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/contest-gallery/tags/30.0.2/index.php#L407
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/contest-gallery/tags/30.0.2/v10/v10-admin/options/change-options-and-sizes.php#L1242
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/contest-gallery/tags/30.0.2/v10/v10-admin/options/change-options-and-sizes.php#L16
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?sfp_email=&sfph_mail=&reponame=&old=3571733%40contest-gallery&new=3571733%40contest-gallery&sfp_email=&sfph_mail=
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/69b909da-b1b0-4dab-916c-908511f6556f?source=cve
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA. Refreshed daily.