CVE-2026-74004 in Gravity Booster Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 08/18/2026
Subscriber Broken Access Control in Gravity Booster – Styles & Layouts for Gravity Forms <= 6.0 versions.
Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/18/2026
The vulnerability identified as a broken access control issue within the Gravity Booster – Styles and Layouts plugin, specifically affecting versions up to 6.0, represents a critical security flaw that undermines the fundamental principle of least privilege in WordPress environments. This type of vulnerability typically arises when an application fails to properly enforce restrictions on what authenticated users are allowed to do with resources or functions. In this specific context, the defect allows subscribers, who represent one of the lowest-privilege user roles within a standard WordPress installation, to perform administrative actions that should be strictly reserved for administrators or editors. This misconfiguration effectively bypasses the intended role-based access control mechanisms built into the platform, allowing unauthorized users to manipulate plugin settings and configurations without proper authorization checks.
From a technical perspective, this flaw is categorized under CWE-269, which denotes Improper Privilege Management, and often intersects with CWE-862 regarding Missing Authorization Checks. The underlying code likely fails to validate user capabilities before executing sensitive functions related to styling or layout adjustments for Gravity Forms. By exploiting this weakness, an attacker who has obtained subscriber-level access can alter the visual presentation of forms, inject malicious CSS styles, or potentially leverage these settings as a vector for further attacks such as Cross-Site Scripting if input sanitization is also insufficient within those style parameters. The absence of robust server-side validation means that any user with even minimal account privileges can interact with administrative endpoints intended only for site owners.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple cosmetic changes to the forms. Because Gravity Booster integrates deeply with Gravity Forms, a widely used plugin for creating complex web forms, compromising its settings can lead to significant data integrity issues and potential data exfiltration risks if the altered styles or layouts are designed to capture sensitive information differently than intended by the administrator. Furthermore, this access control failure facilitates privilege escalation scenarios where an attacker might use their elevated permissions within the plugin to install additional malicious plugins or modify other site configurations that rely on similar permission checks. This erodes trust in the security model of the WordPress installation and exposes the organization to reputational damage if users perceive the platform as insecure due to visible manipulation of form appearances by unauthorized parties.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate action from system administrators and developers. The primary recommendation is to upgrade the Gravity Booster plugin to a version greater than 6.0, where these access control issues have presumably been addressed through code patches that enforce stricter capability checks before allowing modifications to styles or layouts. In cases where upgrading is not immediately feasible due to compatibility constraints with other plugins, administrators should consider disabling the plugin entirely until a secure update can be applied. Additionally, implementing Web Application Firewalls and strict role-based access control policies at the server level can provide an additional layer of defense by blocking unauthorized requests to administrative endpoints regardless of application-level flaws. Regular security audits and penetration testing focused on privilege escalation vectors are also essential to identify similar misconfigurations across other plugins in use within the environment, ensuring a holistic approach to maintaining WordPress ecosystem integrity.