Privilege escalation in Groundhogg CRM plugin for WordPress
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 Groundhogg WordPress plugin from trainingbusinesspros is affected in all versions up to and including 4.9. Missing ownership and capability checks in process_edit() (CWE-269) let users with the edit_contacts capability reassign a contact's linked WordPress user to any account. An authenticated attacker with sales rep access can link a contact to an administrator, read the auto-login URL from a note, and log in as that administrator.
Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-10-29
Description from the CNA
The Groundhogg — CRM, Newsletters, and Marketing Automation plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 4.9 This is due to a missing ownership and capability check on the `user` parameter within the `process_edit()` function, which allows any authenticated user with the `edit_contacts` capability to reassign a contact record's linked WordPress user ID to any arbitrary account without requiring the `edit_users` or `promote_users` capabilities. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with sales_rep-level access and above, to escalate their privileges to administrator by linking a contact to an administrator's WordPress user ID, then creating a note containing the `{auto_login_link}` replacement tag to trigger generation of a valid auto-login permissions-key URL for the administrator-linked contact, and finally visiting that URL to authenticate as the targeted administrator. The auto-login URL is stored in the note content and is readable back by the attacker via the `view_notes` and `add_notes` capabilities that the sales_rep role holds by default.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| trainingbusinesspros | Groundhogg — CRM, Newsletters, and Marketing Automation | up to 4.9 | — | No fix listed | CNA |
- Groundhogg — CRM, Newsletters, and Marketing Automation Vendortrainingbusinesspros Affected up to 4.9 Fixed in — No fix listed CNA
CPE names Threatist (inferred) · 1
Inferred from how NVD named this product before; not given by a source.
| CPE | Versions | Role | Vendor |
|---|---|---|---|
| cpe:2.3:a:groundhogg:groundhogg:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | — | — | trainingbusinesspros |
- cpe:2.3:a:groundhogg:groundhogg:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions — — ·trainingbusinesspros
Remediation
The sources list no fixed version for Groundhogg.
Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-10-29
Timeline
- 2026-10-10 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-104725
- 2026-10-10 Alias added: GHSA-p495-v7fq-hqr5
- 2026-10-11 Priority changed: MEDIUM → LOW
- 2026-10-11 CISA SSVC decision points changed
References
Other 8
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/715b4d10-b19a-4b37-8a76-985c37975c93?source=cve
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groundhogg/tags/4.9/admin/contacts/contacts-page.php#L565
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groundhogg/tags/4.9/admin/contacts/contacts-page.php#L507
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groundhogg/tags/4.9/includes/classes/note.php#L58
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groundhogg/tags/4.9/includes/replacements.php#L1811
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groundhogg/tags/4.9/includes/rewrites.php#L471
- https://github.com/groundhoggwp/groundhogg/commit/804abf42a
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?reponame=&new=3724910%40groundhogg%2Ftags%2F4.9.1&old=3724058%40groundhogg%2Ftags%2F4.9
More trainingbusinesspros vulnerabilities
- TI-2023-01346 Groundhogg Contacts < 2.7.9.4 - Admin+ SQLi CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.2
- TI-2023-01986 HollerBox < 2.1.4 - Admin+ SQL Injection CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 4.9
- TI-2019-11742 The groundhogg plugin before 1.3.5 for WordPress has… CVSS 3.0HIGH 8.8
- TI-2025-00313 Groundhogg <= 3.7.3.5 - Authenticated (Author+) Arbitrary File Upload via gh_big_file_upload Function CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
- TI-2026-67410 Improper privilege management in trainingbusinesspros Groundhogg — CRM, Newsletters, and… CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
- TI-2023-17022 WordPress Groundhogg Plugin <= 2.7.11 is vulnerable to Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF) CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
Sources
- CVE-2026-104725 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-104725 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-p495-v7fq-hqr5 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences