{"id":"CVE-2026-14805","state":"PUBLISHED","title":"Consulting - Business, Finance WordPress Theme <= 6.7.16 - Authenticated (Subscriber+) Privilege Escalation via AJAX","description":"The Consulting theme for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in versions up to, and including, 6.7.16. This is due to a combination of two flaws: (1) the masterstudy_ms_stm_set_discard_transient AJAX endpoint in admin/admin-notices/classes/STMHandler.php accepts an arbitrary transient key without capability checks or nonce validation, and (2) the developer access login mechanism in admin/classes/stm-theme-support.php authenticates users based on a transient value without proper cryptographic validation when in legacy string mode. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with subscriber-level access and above, to set the stm_developer_access_token transient to a known value (1), then authenticate as any existing user including administrators by visiting a specially crafted URL, thereby achieving full privilege escalation to administrator.","publishedAt":"2026-09-15T13:03:44.818Z","updatedAt":"2026-09-17T14:26:49.651Z","severity":{"score":8.8,"label":"High","version":"3.1","vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","source":"Wordfence"},"assigner":"Wordfence","products":["StylemixThemes Consulting - Business, Finance WordPress Theme"],"affected":[{"vendor":"StylemixThemes","product":"Consulting - Business, Finance WordPress Theme","defaultStatus":"unaffected","versions":[{"version":"0","status":"affected","lessThanOrEqual":"6.7.16","versionType":"semver"}]}],"references":["https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/bc8dffc2-ae5b-4482-9eba-adc439a52c26?source=cve","https://themeforest.net/item/consulting-business-finance-wordpress-theme/14740561#item-description__changelog"],"weaknesses":["CWE-269"],"ingestedAt":"2026-10-29T20:11:00.674Z","source":{"repository":"CVEProject/cvelistV5","path":"cves/2026/14xxx/CVE-2026-14805.json","commit":"556c9d3a8cd17e218bb8e452ba7cd619a384ff47"},"raw":{"dataType":"CVE_RECORD","dataVersion":"5.2","cveMetadata":{"cveId":"CVE-2026-14805","state":"PUBLISHED","datePublished":"2026-09-15T13:03:44.818Z","dateUpdated":"2026-09-17T14:26:49.651Z","assignerShortName":"Wordfence","assignerOrgId":"b15e7b5b-3da4-40ae-a43c-f7aa60e62599","dateReserved":"2026-07-06T00:48:07.641Z"},"containers":{"cna":{"title":"Consulting - Business, Finance WordPress Theme <= 6.7.16 - Authenticated (Subscriber+) Privilege Escalation via AJAX","descriptions":[{"lang":"en","value":"The Consulting theme for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in versions up to, and including, 6.7.16. This is due to a combination of two flaws: (1) the masterstudy_ms_stm_set_discard_transient AJAX endpoint in admin/admin-notices/classes/STMHandler.php accepts an arbitrary transient key without capability checks or nonce validation, and (2) the developer access login mechanism in admin/classes/stm-theme-support.php authenticates users based on a transient value without proper cryptographic validation when in legacy string mode. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with subscriber-level access and above, to set the stm_developer_access_token transient to a known value (1), then authenticate as any existing user including administrators by visiting a specially crafted URL, thereby achieving full privilege escalation to administrator."}],"affected":[{"vendor":"StylemixThemes","product":"Consulting - Business, Finance WordPress Theme","defaultStatus":"unaffected","versions":[{"version":"0","status":"affected","lessThanOrEqual":"6.7.16","versionType":"semver"}]}],"references":[{"url":"https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/bc8dffc2-ae5b-4482-9eba-adc439a52c26?source=cve"},{"url":"https://themeforest.net/item/consulting-business-finance-wordpress-theme/14740561#item-description__changelog"}],"metrics":[{"cvssV3_1":{"version":"3.1","vectorString":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","baseScore":8.8,"baseSeverity":"HIGH"}}],"problemTypes":[{"descriptions":[{"cweId":"CWE-269","lang":"en","description":"CWE-269 Improper Privilege Management","type":"CWE"}]}],"providerMetadata":{"shortName":"Wordfence","orgId":"b15e7b5b-3da4-40ae-a43c-f7aa60e62599","dateUpdated":"2026-09-15T13:03:44.818Z"},"credits":[{"lang":"en","type":"finder","value":"lhking"}],"timeline":[{"time":"2026-07-06T01:06:26.000Z","lang":"en","value":"Vendor Notified"},{"time":"2026-09-14T00:00:00.000Z","lang":"en","value":"Disclosed"}]},"adp":[{"title":"CISA ADP Vulnrichment","metrics":[{"other":{"type":"ssvc","content":{"timestamp":"2026-09-17T14:25:45.750508Z","id":"CVE-2026-14805","options":[{"Exploitation":"none"},{"Automatable":"no"},{"Technical Impact":"total"}],"role":"CISA Coordinator","version":"2.0.3"}}}],"providerMetadata":{"shortName":"CISA-ADP","orgId":"134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0","dateUpdated":"2026-09-17T14:26:49.651Z"}}]}}}