Missing AuthorizationWeakness · CWE-862

CVE-2026-0548

MEDIUM · 5.4 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-01-20
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
60/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
The Tutor LMS – eLearning and online course solution plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized attachment deletion due to a missing capability check on the `delete_existing_user_photo` function in all versions up to, and including, 3.9.4. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with subscriber level access and above, to delete arbitrary attachments on the site.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · moderate confidence

The Tutor LMS WordPress plugin has a broken access control vulnerability where the `delete_existing_user_photo` function lacks proper capability validation. This allows any authenticated user with subscriber-level permissions to delete arbitrary file attachments on the WordPress site by directly invoking the vulnerable function.

MitigationUpdate Tutor LMS to version 3.9.5 or later which includes proper capability checks. Until then, restrict user registration or monitor for suspicious attachment deletion activity.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
Low
Availability
Low

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

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Verify Tutor LMS plugin is installed
    Log into WordPress admin and navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins. Look for 'Tutor LMS' in the list of active plugins.
    Affected if Tutor LMS appears in the plugin list and is activated
  2. Check installed version against fixed release
    In WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and click on Tutor LMS details to view the version number. Compare this version to 3.9.5.
    Affected if The installed version is lower than 3.9.5
  3. Confirm WordPress user roles exist
    Navigate to Users > All Users in WordPress admin. Review the column displaying user roles for each account.
    Affected if Any user account with the Subscriber role exists on the site
  4. Check for plugin rest API endpoints
    Inspect the Tutor LMS plugin files for the delete_existing_user_photo function. Look in the plugin directory for PHP files that handle user photo deletion and verify if they include capability checks using current_user_can() or similar WordPress permission functions.
    Affected if The delete_existing_user_photo function exists and lacks proper capability validation checks
  5. Review access logs for attachment deletion activity
    Examine WordPress debug logs, server access logs, or security plugin logs for requests to user photo deletion endpoints. Look for POST requests to endpoints containing 'delete_user_photo' or 'user-photo' from low-privilege accounts.
    Affected if Logs show attachment deletion requests from subscriber-level accounts

The environment is affected if Tutor LMS is installed with a version lower than 3.9.5, the plugin is active, and at least one subscriber-level user account exists on the site.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Update Tutor LMS to version 3.9.5 or later which includes proper capability checks. Until then, restrict user registration or monitor for suspicious attachment deletion activity.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,060
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-0548 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-0548 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data