CVE-2026-97644 json
Groundhogg <= 4.9 - Authenticated (Sales Person+) Privilege Escalation via Contact Identity Rebinding leading to Administrator Account Takeover to 'user_id' Parameter (v3 /contacts) chained with v4 /emails/test
published last mo. modified last mo. also EUVD-2026-91893
- cvss
- 8.8
- version 3.1, CNA
- cisa kev
- Not listed
- not in CISA's catalog
- epss
- 0.5%
- EPSS 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 42%
- public exploits
- 0
- none known
Summary
The Groundhogg — CRM, Newsletters, and Marketing Automation plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation via Contact Identity Rebinding in all versions up to, and including, 4.9 The vulnerability exists because the `create_contact` function in the v3 REST endpoint (`POST /gh/v3/contacts`) is gated solely by the `add_contacts` capability and forwards the full request payload — including the security-bearing `user_id` column — into the upsert path of `Contacts_DB::add()`, which bypasses the ownership guard that `Contacts_DB::update()` enforces, allowing an attacker to rebind any existing contact record to an arbitrary WordPress user ID. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers with Sales Representative-level access and above to upsert their own contact row to point to an Administrator's user ID, then invoke the v4 email-test endpoint (`POST /gh/v4/emails/test`) — also accessible to the Sales Representative role via the `send_emails` capability — to generate an `{auto_login_url}` one-time permissions key bound to the rebound contact, and consume that link to call `wp_set_auth_cookie()` and gain a fully authenticated session as the WordPress Administrator.
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Check with FencerCISA SSVC
- Exploitation
- none
- Automatable
- no
- Technical impact
- total
- Assessed
- last mo.
Exploit prediction
0.48% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 42% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-11).
CVSS scores
| assigned by | version | score | vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| CNA | 3.1 | 8.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
Affected products
- trainingbusinesspros Groundhogg — CRM, Newsletters, and Marketing Automation
Classification
- Weakness
-
- CWE-269 Improper Privilege Management
- Technology feeds
References
- wordfence.com /threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/557306b7-7b66-465e-8d4d-ebae5b1577c9?source=cve
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org /browser/groundhogg/tags/4.8.3/api/v3/contacts-api.php#L373
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org /browser/groundhogg/tags/4.8.3/db/contacts.php#L205
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org /browser/groundhogg/tags/4.8.3/api/v4/emails-api.php#L571
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org /browser/groundhogg/tags/4.8.3/includes/replacements.php#L2280
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org /browser/groundhogg/tags/4.8.3/includes/rewrites.php#L460
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org /browser/groundhogg/tags/4.8.3/includes/main-roles.php#L532
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org /changeset?reponame=&new=3724910%40groundhogg%2Ftags%2F4.9.1&old=3724058%40groundhogg%2Ftags%2F4.9
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org /changeset/3724910/groundhogg/trunk/api/v3/contacts-api.php
Sources
- CVE List CVE-2026-97644
- NVD CVE-2026-97644
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