CVE-2026-104022
Academy LMS <= 4.0.3 - Authenticated (Custom+) Privilege Escalation to add_child REST endpoint
- State
- Published
- Severity
- 5.4 Medium
- Published
- Oct 10, 2026
- Updated
- Oct 11, 2026
- Reserved
- Oct 1, 2026
Description
The Academy LMS – AI Course Builder, Quizzes, Certificates & eLearning plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 4.0.3. This is due to the `add_child()` function calling `add_role('academy_student')` on any existing account resolved from the attacker-supplied `email` parameter before `Store::link()` validates the guardian-ward relationship, and failing to roll back that role write when `Store::link()` returns a `WP_Error`. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers with the `academy_guardian` role or higher to elevate any existing WordPress account — including their own — to the `academy_student` role, gaining `edit_posts` (Contributor-equivalent) capabilities and, when the student file-upload setting is enabled, `upload_files` (Author-equivalent) capabilities not granted to the guardian role. When a guardian supplies their own email address, `email_exists()` resolves to their own user ID, causing `Store::link()` to reject the self-link, but because the `add_role()` call has already executed and is never reversed, the academy_student role grant on their own account persists permanently.
Scores
| CVSS | Score | Vector | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | 5.4 Medium | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N | Wordfence |
Weaknesses
- CWE-269 Improper Privilege Management
Affected Products
| Product | Versions |
|---|---|
Academy LMS – AI Course Builder, Quizzes, Certificates & eLearningkodezen |
|
References
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/a54dd9e5-59e7-4655-9f64-e198deda1383?source=cve
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/academy/tags/4.0.2/includes/guardian/rest-api.php#L160
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/academy/tags/4.0.2/includes/guardian/rest-api.php#L138
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/academy/tags/4.0.2/includes/guardian/rest-api.php#L85
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/academy/tags/4.0.2/includes/guardian/store.php#L39
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?reponame=&old=3734598%40academy&new=3734598%40academy
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