CVE-2026-110042 in Payment Forms for Paystack Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 10/31/2026
The Payment Forms for Paystack WordPress plugin before 4.0.6 does not properly restrict access to a page that displays its stored configuration, allowing users with the Contributor role and above to view secret payment-gateway API credentials, both the live and test secret keys, which grant full access to the site owner's payment account.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/31/2026
The vulnerability identified in Paystack WordPress plugin versions prior to 4.0.6 represents a critical failure in access control mechanisms within the application architecture. Specifically, the flaw resides in an endpoint designed to display stored configuration settings for the payment gateway integration. This page was intended for administrative oversight but failed to enforce appropriate role-based restrictions on who could view sensitive data contained therein. The technical root cause is a lack of proper capability checks or permission validation before rendering the content that includes secret API credentials. Consequently, any authenticated user possessing at least the Contributor role in WordPress can access this endpoint and retrieve highly confidential information. This misconfiguration effectively bypasses the principle of least privilege, allowing lower-privileged users to escalate their impact significantly by accessing data reserved for administrators only.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe due to the nature of the exposed data. The page reveals both live and test secret API keys associated with the site owner's Paystack payment account. These credentials are not merely identifiers but serve as authentication tokens that grant full programmatic access to the merchant’s financial operations. An attacker exploiting this flaw can use these keys to initiate transactions, refund payments, or manipulate customer data through the Paystack API without needing further authorization from the website administrator. This compromises the integrity of the payment processing system and poses a direct risk of financial loss for the business owner. Furthermore, because test keys are also exposed, attackers may attempt to exploit sandbox environments to understand transaction flows before targeting live accounts, thereby increasing the sophistication and success rate of subsequent attacks.
From a classification perspective, this vulnerability aligns with CWE-284 Improper Access Control, as it involves unauthorized access to restricted resources due to insufficient enforcement of permissions. It also relates closely to CWE-798 Use of Hard-coded Credentials if the keys were improperly stored or managed, though in this specific instance, the primary issue is the exposure via an accessible interface rather than hard-coding within source code. In terms of adversary behavior mapping under MITRE ATT&CK, this flaw facilitates Initial Access and Credential Access techniques. Attackers can leverage these exposed credentials to move laterally across systems that trust the payment gateway’s API or to exfiltrate sensitive financial data, which falls under T1530 Data from Cloud Storage Objectives if the keys allow access to stored transaction records.
Mitigation strategies must focus on immediate remediation and long-term security hardening. The primary action is to upgrade the Paystack WordPress plugin to version 4.0.6 or later, where this access control flaw has been addressed by developers through proper capability verification checks before rendering sensitive configuration data. For organizations unable to update immediately due to compatibility constraints, temporary mitigations include restricting user roles that have contributor-level permissions and above from accessing any admin-facing pages related to payment settings via server-side rules or custom code overrides until the patch is applied. Additionally, it is critical to rotate all exposed API keys, both live and test, through the Paystack dashboard immediately after remediation to invalidate any potentially compromised credentials. Regular audits of user roles and permissions should be conducted to ensure that only necessary personnel have access to sensitive administrative functions, thereby reducing the attack surface for similar privilege escalation vulnerabilities in the future.