CVE-2026-97644 — WordPress
HIGHCVE-2026-97644 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.8) Improper Privilege Management vulnerability. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
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,…
Description
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.
Detection & mitigation playbook
VulnerabilityDetect
Identify every host running the affected component and compare the installed build against the fixed version below — for source-built or distro-packaged software the version string, not a lockfile, is the source of truth (`dpkg -l`, `rpm -q`, or the binary's own `--version`).
Remediation status
No fixed release is recorded for CVE-2026-97644 yet. Track the upstream advisory, and apply the exposure-reduction steps below in the meantime.
Mitigate without a patch
Close the privilege gap rather than the entry point: audit which accounts, roles and service identities can reach the affected operation, drop the component to the least privilege it actually needs, and review file and directory permissions created by earlier installs — a default left in place is what makes this reachable.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-97644 in your dependencies?
Find it across , including transitive dependencies.