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CVE PROGRAM SOURCE RECORD8.1 High

CVE-2026-4021

Contest Gallery <= 28.1.5 - Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation Admin Account Takeover via Registration Confirmation Email-to-ID Type Confusion

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Status
Published
Published
Updated
Assigning organization
Wordfence

Description

The Contest Gallery plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to an authentication bypass leading to admin account takeover in all versions up to, and including, 28.1.5. This is due to the email confirmation handler in `users-registry-check-after-email-or-pin-confirmation.php` using the user's email string in a `WHERE ID = %s` clause instead of the numeric user ID, combined with an unauthenticated key-based login endpoint in `ajax-functions-frontend.php`. When the non-default `RegMailOptional=1` setting is enabled, an attacker can register with a crafted email starting with the target user ID (e.g., `1poc@example.test`), trigger the confirmation flow to overwrite the admin's `user_activation_key` via MySQL integer coercion, and then use the `post_cg1l_login_user_by_key` AJAX action to authenticate as the admin without any credentials. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to take over any WordPress administrator account and gain full site control.

Affected products

Version statuses are supplied by the assigning organization. Consult the original record for detailed ranges and platform conditions.

contest-gallery Contest Gallery – Upload & Vote Photos, Media, Sell with PayPal & Stripe

Default version status: unaffected

  • 0 to ≤ 28.1.5affected

References