CVE-2026-119087 in Content Egg Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 10/30/2026
The Content Egg – Affiliate Product Importer & Price Comparison plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to authorization bypass in all versions up to, and including, 12.0.0 This is due to the plugin not properly verifying that a user is authorized to perform an action. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with author-level access and above, to create posts attributed to another user's account — typically an administrator — by supplying an admin-owned preset_id, causing wp_insert_post to record the administrator as post_author. This includes the ability to create published posts when the attacker already holds publish_posts capability for the preset's post type, resulting in administrator-attributed published content created by a lower-privileged user.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/30/2026
The Content Egg plugin, widely utilized within the WordPress ecosystem for affiliate product importing and price comparison functionalities, contains a critical authorization bypass vulnerability affecting all versions up to and including 12.0.0. This flaw stems from an insufficient verification of user privileges when processing specific administrative actions. Specifically, the application fails to adequately validate that the initiating request originates from a user with sufficient authority to perform the targeted operation on behalf of another entity. In standard web application security models, such as those defined by OWASP and CWE standards, proper authorization checks are fundamental to preventing unauthorized access control violations. The absence of these rigorous checks in this plugin creates a significant attack surface for malicious actors who have already gained authenticated access to the WordPress environment.
The technical core of this vulnerability lies in how the plugin handles post creation requests through its internal logic. When an attacker with author-level access or higher attempts to create a new post, they can manipulate input parameters by supplying a preset_id associated with an administrator account. The underlying function wp_insert_post is then invoked without verifying that the current user has permission to attribute content to the specified admin user. Consequently, the system records the post as being authored by the administrator rather than the actual creator. This behavior represents a classic case of insecure direct object reference combined with broken access control, where the application trusts client-supplied identifiers for critical identity attributes without cross-referencing them against session-based permissions or database ownership records.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe due to its potential for privilege escalation and reputation damage within the WordPress site. An authenticated attacker can effectively impersonate an administrator by publishing content that appears to originate from a high-privilege account. This capability allows lower-privileged users, such as authors or contributors with elevated permissions, to bypass restrictions intended only for administrators. For instance, if the attacker possesses the publish_posts capability for the specific post type associated with the preset, they can generate published posts attributed to an admin. This not only compromises the integrity of the content management system but also undermines audit trails and accountability mechanisms that rely on accurate user attribution. Such actions could be used to spread malicious links, defame the site owner, or further escalate privileges by manipulating administrative settings if other related vulnerabilities exist in conjunction with this access bypass.
From a threat intelligence perspective, this vulnerability aligns with CWE-269 Improper Privilege Management and is often associated with ATT&CK technique T1078 Valid Accounts, where attackers leverage legitimate credentials to perform actions beyond their intended scope. The ability to create posts under another user's identity also touches upon aspects of data manipulation and integrity violation, which are critical concerns in content management systems that rely on trust between users and administrators. Attackers with author-level access typically have limited capabilities compared to admins; however, this flaw effectively elevates their influence by allowing them to act as an admin for specific actions like publishing content. This discrepancy highlights the danger of relying solely on role-based access control without implementing granular object-level permission checks during critical write operations.
Mitigation strategies must focus on immediate remediation and long-term security hardening. The most effective solution is to upgrade the Content Egg plugin to a version later than 12.0.0, where developers have presumably implemented proper authorization verification logic to ensure that users can only create posts attributed to their own accounts unless explicitly permitted otherwise by higher-level administrative policies. For organizations unable to update immediately due to compatibility constraints, temporary mitigations include restricting the capabilities of author and contributor roles as much as possible within WordPress settings, thereby reducing the attack surface for those who might exploit this flaw. Additionally, implementing a Web Application Firewall with rules that detect anomalous patterns in post creation requests could provide an additional layer of defense by blocking suspicious preset_id manipulations before they reach the application logic. Regular security audits and code reviews focusing on authorization checks are essential to prevent similar vulnerabilities from persisting in future updates or related plugins within the WordPress infrastructure.