CVE-2026-16635: Pronamic Pay (WordPress plugin) · Improper Privilege Management
Affects Pronamic Pay (WordPress plugin)Source CVE Database V5
Not known to be exploited · CVSS 8.8 High.
Data as of 31 Oct 2026, 08:20 UTC
- EPSS
- 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 47% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HExploitation evidence
Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 1 Aug 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponized: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors
A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 30 Oct 2026.
What to do
Affected software
| Product | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| pronamicPronamic Pay | Affected
| Fixed in– |
AI-suggested
Until a fix is available, administrators should disable the Update User Role option in Pronamic Pay payment feeds configured in Gravity Forms or avoid mapping user role fields to form inputs. Restrict access to Gravity Forms and Pronamic Pay configuration to trusted administrators only. Monitor for suspicious privilege changes. Follow official vendor advisories for updates and apply patches promptly once released.
Description
The Pronamic Pay plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 10.1.0 This is due to the `maybe_update_user_role()` function passing an attacker-controlled Gravity Forms field value (`$lead[$feed->user_role_field_id]`) directly into `WP_User::set_role()` without any allowlist validation, capability comparison, or permission check to constrain which roles can be assigned. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to escalate their own WordPress account to Administrator by tampering with the role field value in a form submission. Exploitation requires that an administrator has already configured a Pronamic Pay payment feed in Gravity Forms with the **Update User Role** option enabled and mapped to a form field; once that configuration is in place, no further preconditions exist to prevent an authenticated attacker from exploiting this vulnerability.
References
- wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/d42b8856-e5d0-4122-98a4-8c959832b271?source=cve (opens in a new tab)
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/pronamic-ideal/tags/10.1.0/packages/wp-pay-extensions/gravityforms/src/Extension.php (opens in a new tab)
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/pronamic-ideal/tags/10.1.0/packages/wp-pay-extensions/gravityforms/src/Extension.php (opens in a new tab)
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/pronamic-ideal/tags/10.1.0/packages/wp-pay-extensions/gravityforms/src/Extension.php (opens in a new tab)
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/pronamic-ideal/tags/10.1.0/packages/wp-pay-extensions/gravityforms/src/Extension.php (opens in a new tab)
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?old_path=%2Fpronamic-ideal/tags/10.1.0&new_path=%2Fpronamic-ideal/tags/10.2.0 (opens in a new tab)
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3630401/pronamic-ideal/trunk/packages/wp-pay-extensions/gravityforms/src/Extension.php (opens in a new tab)