CVE-2026-104022

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.

Predictions

Heuristic predictions, AS-IS, for prioritization only.

Mitigations

References

• https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/academy/tags/4.0.2/includes/guardian/rest-api.php#L138
• https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/academy/tags/4.0.2/includes/guardian/rest-api.php#L160
• https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/academy/tags/4.0.2/includes/guardian/rest-api.php#L85
• https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/academy/tags/4.0.2/includes/guardian/store.php#L39
• https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?reponame=&old=3734598%40academy&new=3734598%40academy
• https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/a54dd9e5-59e7-4655-9f64-e198deda1383?source=cve

CWEs

CWE-269