Vulnerability-Lookup

GHSA-XWXR-P855-GJC3

Vulnerability from github – Published: 2026-07-08 06:31 – Updated: 2026-07-08 06:31

Details

The Backstage - Customizer Demo Access plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 1.4.2. This is due to the plugin assigning the manage_options capability to the backstage_customizer_user demo role, which is more permissive than necessary for Customizer-only demo access. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to navigate beyond the Customizer and update arbitrary WordPress options such as default_role, leading to privilege escalation.

Severity

7.5 (High)


                  
                    CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

Show details on source website

JSON

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{
  "affected": [],
  "aliases": [
    "CVE-2026-9842"
  ],
  "database_specific": {
    "cwe_ids": [
      "CWE-269"
    ],
    "github_reviewed": false,
    "github_reviewed_at": null,
    "nvd_published_at": "2026-07-08T05:16:29Z",
    "severity": "HIGH"
  },
  "details": "The Backstage - Customizer Demo Access plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 1.4.2. This is due to the plugin assigning the `manage_options` capability to the `backstage_customizer_user` demo role, which is more permissive than necessary for Customizer-only demo access. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to navigate beyond the Customizer and update arbitrary WordPress options such as `default_role`, leading to privilege escalation.",
  "id": "GHSA-xwxr-p855-gjc3",
  "modified": "2026-07-08T06:31:35Z",
  "published": "2026-07-08T06:31:35Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-9842"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/backstage/tags/1.4.2/includes/class-Backstage.php#L154"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/backstage/tags/1.4.2/includes/class-Backstage.php#L348"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/5bcf1f02-0946-4e96-a81b-00c7c48d64b3?source=cve"
    }
  ],
  "schema_version": "1.4.0",
  "severity": [
    {
      "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N",
      "type": "CVSS_V3"
    }
  ]
}

CVE-2026-9842 (GCVE-0-2026-9842)

Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2026-07-08 04:30 – Updated: 2026-07-08 13:01

Title

Backstage <= 1.4.2 - Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation via Permissive Demo Role Capabilities

Summary

The Backstage - Customizer Demo Access plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 1.4.2. This is due to the plugin assigning the `manage_options` capability to the `backstage_customizer_user` demo role, which is more permissive than necessary for Customizer-only demo access. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to navigate beyond the Customizer and update arbitrary WordPress options such as `default_role`, leading to privilege escalation.

Severity

7.5 (High)


                        
                          CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

SSVC

Exploitation: none Automatable: yes Technical Impact: partial

CISA Coordinator · CISA-ADP (v2.0.3)

Decision recorded 2026-07-08 13:00 UTC

CWE

CWE-269 - Improper Privilege Management

Assigner

Wordfence mitre root

References

3 references

URL	Tags
https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabil…
https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/backst…
https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/backst…

Impacted products

1 product

Vendor	Product	Version
pixelgrade	Backstage – Customizer Demo Access	Affected: 0 , ≤ 1.4.2 (semver)

Credits

Nabil Irawan

Show details on NVD website

JSON

To clipboard

{
  "containers": {
    "adp": [
      {
        "metrics": [
          {
            "other": {
              "content": {
                "id": "CVE-2026-9842",
                "options": [
                  {
                    "Exploitation": "none"
                  },
                  {
                    "Automatable": "yes"
                  },
                  {
                    "Technical Impact": "partial"
                  }
                ],
                "role": "CISA Coordinator",
                "timestamp": "2026-07-08T13:00:54.003774Z",
                "version": "2.0.3"
              },
              "type": "ssvc"
            }
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        ],
        "providerMetadata": {
          "dateUpdated": "2026-07-08T13:01:09.142Z",
          "orgId": "134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0",
          "shortName": "CISA-ADP"
        },
        "title": "CISA ADP Vulnrichment"
      }
    ],
    "cna": {
      "affected": [
        {
          "defaultStatus": "unaffected",
          "product": "Backstage \u2013 Customizer Demo Access",
          "vendor": "pixelgrade",
          "versions": [
            {
              "lessThanOrEqual": "1.4.2",
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "0",
              "versionType": "semver"
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "credits": [
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "type": "finder",
          "value": "Nabil Irawan"
        }
      ],
      "descriptions": [
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "value": "The Backstage - Customizer Demo Access plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 1.4.2. This is due to the plugin assigning the `manage_options` capability to the `backstage_customizer_user` demo role, which is more permissive than necessary for Customizer-only demo access. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to navigate beyond the Customizer and update arbitrary WordPress options such as `default_role`, leading to privilege escalation."
        }
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "cvssV3_1": {
            "baseScore": 7.5,
            "baseSeverity": "HIGH",
            "vectorString": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N",
            "version": "3.1"
          }
        }
      ],
      "problemTypes": [
        {
          "descriptions": [
            {
              "cweId": "CWE-269",
              "description": "CWE-269 Improper Privilege Management",
              "lang": "en",
              "type": "CWE"
            }
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        }
      ],
      "providerMetadata": {
        "dateUpdated": "2026-07-08T04:30:49.525Z",
        "orgId": "b15e7b5b-3da4-40ae-a43c-f7aa60e62599",
        "shortName": "Wordfence"
      },
      "references": [
        {
          "url": "https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/5bcf1f02-0946-4e96-a81b-00c7c48d64b3?source=cve"
        },
        {
          "url": "https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/backstage/tags/1.4.2/includes/class-Backstage.php#L154"
        },
        {
          "url": "https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/backstage/tags/1.4.2/includes/class-Backstage.php#L348"
        }
      ],
      "timeline": [
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "time": "2026-03-23T00:00:00.000Z",
          "value": "Discovered"
        },
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "time": "2026-07-07T16:30:36.000Z",
          "value": "Disclosed"
        }
      ],
      "title": "Backstage \u003c= 1.4.2 - Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation via Permissive Demo Role Capabilities"
    }
  },
  "cveMetadata": {
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    "assignerShortName": "Wordfence",
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    "datePublished": "2026-07-08T04:30:49.525Z",
    "dateReserved": "2026-05-28T13:26:31.589Z",
    "dateUpdated": "2026-07-08T13:01:09.142Z",
    "state": "PUBLISHED"
  },
  "dataType": "CVE_RECORD",
  "dataVersion": "5.2"
}

Sightings

Author	Source	Type	Date	Other

Nomenclature

Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.

Detection rules are retrieved from Rulezet.

The MITRE ATT&CK techniques below are AI-generated suggestions, inferred from the description of the vulnerability by the CIRCL/vulnerability-attack-technique-classification-roberta-base model, served locally by ML-Gateway. They have not been verified by an analyst and are provided for guidance only.
The approach is described in our paper Mapping CVEs to MITRE ATT&CK Techniques: A Curated Gold-Set Classifier and the Limits of LLM-Assisted Label Expansion.
Browse all ATT&CK techniques and the vulnerabilities related to each.

Related by attack behaviour

Vulnerabilities whose description is nearest to this one in the vector space of the CIRCL/vulnerability-attack-technique-biencoder model. This is a similarity search over the bi-encoder space (plain cosine), not a classification, and it has no measured accuracy.