CVE-2026-8809

9.8 CRITICAL
Published: May 28, 2026 Modified: May 29, 2026
View on NVD

Description

The Advanced Custom Fields: Extended plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation via Validation Bypass in all versions up to and including 0.9.2.5. The vulnerability exists due to the after_validate_save_post() function unconditionally trusting the attacker-controlled _acf_post_id POST parameter — with no authentication or integrity verification — to select a cleanup branch that silently discards all validation errors not prefixed with acfe:. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to suppress both the role allow-list validation error added by acfe_field_user_roles::validate_front_value() and the administrator-role capability guard error added by acfe_module_form_action_user::validate_action(), causing wp_insert_user() to execute with an attacker-supplied administrator role argument and resulting in the creation of a new administrator-level user account. Exploitation requires the target site to expose a public ACFE frontend form configured with a Create User action that maps a role field.

AI Explanation

Get an AI-powered plain-language explanation of this vulnerability and remediation steps.

Login to generate AI explanation

CVSS v3.x Details

0.0 Low Medium High Critical 10.0
Vector String
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Quick Stats

CVSS v3 Score
9.8 / 10.0
EPSS (Exploit Probability)
0.2%
46th percentile
Exploitation Status
Not in CISA KEV

Weaknesses (CWE)