CVE-2026-18467: Critical privilege escalation (CVSS 9.8)

Description

The Paytium: Mollie payment forms & donations plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 5.0.3. The 5.0.3 patch introduced a wp_hash()/hash_equals() signature gate on the pt-paytium-user-data field, but left a second filter — pt_cf_checkout_meta(), registered on the pt_meta_values hook after the signed builder — that copies every $_POST['pt_form_field'][*] key verbatim into the payment meta array without any signature verification; this allows the pt-user-role value it copies to overwrite the signed path's output, after which paytium_user_data_processing() reads the persisted _pt-user-role post meta and passes it directly as the role argument to wp_insert_user(). This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to register a new WordPress account with the administrator role and fully take over the site. Exploitation requires submitting a payment through a publicly-exposed [paytium] shortcode form and completing the resulting payment flow, after which the attacker can seize the new administrator account via the standard lost-password flow on their supplied email address.

CVSS 3.1 breakdown

Attack vectorNetwork

Attack complexityLow

Privileges requiredNone

User interactionNone

ScopeUnchanged

ConfidentialityHigh

IntegrityHigh

AvailabilityHigh

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Remediation

No fixed version is recorded in the NVD data. Check the vendor advisory for the latest guidance.

References

Related CVEs

Recent high-severity vulnerabilities sharing a weakness type.

Frequently asked

Is CVE-2026-18467 being actively exploited?

CVE-2026-18467 is not in the CISA KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit probability is 0.39%.

How severe is CVE-2026-18467?

CVE-2026-18467 has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 9.8, rated critical. EPSS estimates a 0.39% probability of exploitation.

How do I fix CVE-2026-18467?

Apply the vendor's patch or advisory guidance, then verify no affected versions remain across your devices.

How Secuno handles this

Secuno correlates vulnerabilities like CVE-2026-18467 against the real software inventory on every managed device, as each hourly inventory arrives. Rather than a static severity, each match is scored in context: exploit availability, EPSS, the asset's exposure, and business criticality decide where it lands in the queue. If an affected version is present anywhere across your portfolio, it surfaces automatically with a prioritised remediation path.

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