CVE-2026-85659
Description
The PilotPress plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation via Account Takeover in all versions up to, and including, 2.0.43. The vulnerability exists because the `update_cc_details()` AJAX handler forwards an attacker-supplied `username` parameter to ONTRAPORT via `api_call('update_cc_details', ...)` before performing the local `username_exists()` collision check, and aborts without rolling back the remote rename when a collision is detected — leaving the remote ONTRAPORT contact renamed to an existing WordPress Administrator's login. On a subsequent login attempt, `user_login()` (hooked to `wp_authenticate`) authenticates against ONTRAPORT using the renamed login and the attacker's own password, resolves the local WordPress user row via `get_user_by('login', $username)` — which now selects the real Administrator's row — and calls `wp_set_password()` against that Administrator's user ID; because the `user_level != 10` guard only suppresses PilotPress's own cookie issuance rather than returning a `WP_Error` to core, WordPress proceeds to validate the newly-synchronized password and issues a full Administrator authentication cookie to the attacker. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers with Subscriber-level access and above — specifically any PilotPress member holding a valid ONTRAPORT contact and the Customer Center nonce — to fully take over an Administrator account.
Predictions
Heuristic predictions, AS-IS, for prioritization only.
Mitigations
No mitigations published for this CVE yet.
The vendor-content worker queues fetches as references arrive (check back in a few minutes). Or — if you've already worked around this in production — publish your fix to the community-verified tier.
Propose a mitigation on Community Mitigations published via the community go through AI scoring + 2 human reviewers + 7-day silent objection window before landing here withsource_tier=community-verified.
References
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/pilotpress/tags/2.0.39/pilotpress.php?rev=3642310#L1029
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/pilotpress/tags/2.0.39/pilotpress.php?rev=3642310#L1099
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/pilotpress/tags/2.0.39/pilotpress.php?rev=3642310#L1690
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/pilotpress/tags/2.0.39/pilotpress.php?rev=3642310#L2380
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3737004
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/ceee48dd-72a7-49c3-90d5-7af1a30f9ecb?source=cve
CWEs
CWE-269
Community-verified mitigations for this CVE will appear above when contributors publish them.
Verify integrity in audit chain (admin only). AS-IS.