Vulnerability record
CVE-2026-123769
The short answer
CVE-2026-123769 affects brainstormforce SureDash – Community, Courses & Member Dashboard and is rated high (CVSS 8.8). It is not in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
What it is
The SureDash – Community, Courses & Member Dashboard plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 1.13.0 This is due to the `save_settings()` REST handler at `/suredash/v1/save-settings` being gated only by `admin_permission_callback()`, which authorizes any holder of the custom `manage_portal_dashboard` capability (Portal Manager role) without requiring `promote_users`, `edit_users`, or `manage_options`, combined with `sanitize_settings_data()` iterating all attacker-supplied keys with no allow-list, allowing arbitrary keys such as `default_role` to pass through `sanitize_text_field()` unchanged and be persisted into the `portal_settings` option via `update_option()` with no role-validity check. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers with Portal Manager-level access and above to poison the `default_role` setting to `administrator`, after which any subsequent new-user registration through the publicly accessible block-register endpoint reads the corrupted setting and passes it directly to `wp_insert_user()`, producing a full WordPress Administrator account under the attacker's control. The exploit requires two steps: a POST to the authenticated `save-settings` endpoint to overwrite `default_role`, followed by triggering a new registration through the unauthenticated block-register endpoint to receive the escalated account. Successful exploitation causes the attacker's own account to receive the complete administrator role.
Weakness: CWE-269.
Severity
8.8 high
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Exploited (CISA KEV)
Not listed
CISA lists confirmed exploitation only
EPSS, next 30 days
No score
FIRST scores CVEs within a day of publication
How it can be exploited
- Attack vector
- Network
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality impact
- High
- Integrity impact
- High
- Availability impact
- High
Affected products
SureDash – Community, Courses & Member Dashboard. NVD's record lists the exact affected versions.
References
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/suredash/tags/1.13.0/core/routers/backend.php#L1309
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/suredash/tags/1.13.0/core/routers/social-logins.php#L472
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/suredash/tags/1.13.0/inc/services/router.php#L108
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/suredash/tags/1.13.0/inc/utils/sanitizer.php#L101
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/suredash/tags/1.13.0/inc/utils/settings.php#L604
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3794229/suredash/trunk/core/routers/backend.php
- www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/2f317dcd-dc4f-482a-8faa-91cd9c022276?source=cve
Questions
Is CVE-2026-123769 being exploited?
It is not in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog as of 2026-11-13.
How do I fix CVE-2026-123769?
Follow the vendor advisory in the references below. NVD lists the affected versions under its configurations.
From NVD, CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS and OSV.dev, checked . Status on NVD: Deferred. The description is NVD's text, quoted as published.
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