CVE-2026-77203: Groups (WordPress plugin) · Improper Privilege Management
Affects Groups (WordPress plugin)Source CVE Database V5
Not known to be exploited · CVSS 8.8 High.
Data as of 10 Nov 2026, 23:24 UTC
- EPSS
- 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 24% 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 26 Sep 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 10 Nov 2026.
What to do
Affected software
| Product | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| itthinxGroups – Memberships and Access Control | Affected
| Fixed in– |
AI-suggested
Until an official fix is available, restrict access to the vulnerable plugin or disable it if possible to prevent exploitation.
Description
The Groups – Memberships and Access Control plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 4.6.0. This is due to the groups_join() function deriving group-join eligibility from the ambient post's author capabilities via the global $post->post_author rather than from the currently authenticated user's own capabilities, while simultaneously minting and returning a valid groups-join-data hash and WordPress nonce for the caller in the same response — eliminating all authorization barriers to self-enrollment. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to enroll themselves into any group including privileged groups carrying the groups_admin_groups capability, and to subsequently create and join a group containing every registered WordPress capability, effectively escalating their privileges to Administrator. Exploitation requires the attacker to supply an Administrator-authored post ID via the post_ID parameter of the authenticated wp_ajax_parse_media_shortcode handler in order to establish the privileged ambient post context used by the flawed authorization check.
References
- wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/e86dddc9-c1d3-426b-8ec7-2e56dc3c2379?source=cve (opens in a new tab)
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groups/tags/4.5.0/lib/views/class-groups-shortcodes.php (opens in a new tab)
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groups/tags/4.5.0/lib/views/class-groups-shortcodes.php (opens in a new tab)
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groups/tags/4.5.0/lib/views/class-groups-shortcodes.php (opens in a new tab)
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groups/tags/4.5.0/lib/wp/class-groups-wordpress.php (opens in a new tab)
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groups/tags/4.5.0/lib/views/class-groups-shortcodes.php (opens in a new tab)
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3693123/groups (opens in a new tab)