Pronamic Pay Plugin up to 10.1.0 on WordPress Role Assignment maybe_update_user_role user_role_field_id privileges management

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability categorized as critical has been discovered in Pronamic Pay Plugin up to 10.1.0. Affected by this issue is the function maybe_update_user_role of the component Role Assignment. Such manipulation of the argument user_role_field_id leads to privileges management. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2026-16635. The attack can be launched remotely. No exploit exists.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Pronamic Pay Plugin up to 10.1.0 and classified as critical. Affected by this issue is the function maybe_update_user_role of the component Role Assignment. The manipulation of the argument user_role_field_id with an unknown input leads to a privileges management vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-269. The product does not properly assign, modify, track, or check privileges for an actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

The Pronamic Pay plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 10.1.0 This is due to the `maybe_update_user_role()` function passing an attacker-controlled Gravity Forms field value (`$lead[$feed->user_role_field_id]`) directly into `WP_User::set_role()` without any allowlist validation, capability comparison, or permission check to constrain which roles can be assigned. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to escalate their own WordPress account to Administrator by tampering with the role field value in a form submission. Exploitation requires that an administrator has already configured a Pronamic Pay payment feed in Gravity Forms with the **Update User Role** option enabled and mapped to a form field; once that configuration is in place, no further preconditions exist to prevent an authenticated attacker from exploiting this vulnerability.

The advisory is shared for download at wordfence.com. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-16635 since 07/22/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be launched remotely. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available. The current price for an exploit might be approx. USD $0-$5k (estimation calculated on 08/01/2026). The MITRE ATT&CK project declares the attack technique as T1068.

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at EUVD (EUVD-2026-51795). VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.

Productinfo

Type

• WordPress Plugin

Vendor

• Pronamic

Name

• Pay Plugin

Version

• 10.0
• 10.1.0

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.

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