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TI-2026-10468 Aliases CVE-2026-12165GHSA-2mpv-c59f-r8f4

Contest Gallery <= 30.0.2 - Authenticated (Author+) Privilege Escalation via 'RegistryUserRole' Parameter

Priority MEDIUM 40CWE-269Published · Updated

Key facts

Attack vector
Network
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Attack complexity
Low
Impact type
Privilege escalation
Confidentiality · integrity · availability
High · High · High
Fix status
No fix listed

Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA. Impact type from CWE-269.

Summary

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.

Why it matters now

Exploitation None reported CISA SSVC · not in CISA KEV
EPSS 0.00396 34th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix No fix listed No fixed version in the sources yet

SSVC decision points

CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3

Exploitation
None
Automatable
No
Technical impact
Total

The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.

Affected products

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
Wasiliy Strecker / ContestGallery developerContest Gallery – Upload & Vote Photos, Media, Sell with PayPal & Stripeup to 30.0.2—No fix listedCNA

CPE names Threatist (inferred) · 1

Inferred from how NVD named this product before; not given by a source.

CPEVersionsRoleVendor
cpe:2.3:a:contest-gallery:contest_gallery:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*——Wasiliy Strecker / ContestGallery developer

Remediation

No fixed version listed by the sources yet.

Timeline

  1. 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-12165
  2. 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-2mpv-c59f-r8f4

References

  • TI-2022-03804 Contest Gallery < 19.1.5 - Unauthenticated SQL Injection CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
  • TI-2022-03802 Contest Gallery < 19.1.5.1 - Unauthenticated SQL Injection CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
  • TI-2024-26556 WordPress Contest Gallery plugin <= 23.1.2 - Cross Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.1
  • TI-2022-03797 Contest Gallery < 19.1.5 - Admin+ SQL Injection CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 6.5
  • TI-2022-03812 Contest Gallery < 19.1.5 - Author+ SQL Injection CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 6.5
  • TI-2022-03811 Contest Gallery < 19.1.5 - Author+ SQL Injection CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 6.5
See all 54 →

Sources