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Improper Privilege ManagementWeakness · CWE-269

CVE-2026-12165

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-06-17
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
94/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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 Contest Gallery – Upload & Vote Photos, Media, Sell with PayPal & Stripe plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 30.0.2 via the `RegistryUserRole` parameter. This is due to the plugin's admin menu being registered at the `edit_posts` capability level — granting Contributor-level users access to the plugin's admin pages and a valid `cg_admin` nonce — while the option-saving handler in `change-options-and-sizes.php` performs no `current_user_can()` capability check beyond `check_admin_referer('cg_admin')`, and the `RegistryUserRole` value is processed only through `sanitize_text_field()` and `htmlentities()` without restriction to an allowlist of permitted role names. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with author-level access and above, to overwrite the plugin's stored `RegistryUserRole` option with `administrator`, which the `cg_create_wp_user_from_google_user` function then reads back from the `contest_gal1ery_registry_and_login_options` database table without any allowlist validation and passes directly to `wp_update_user()`, effectively promoting a newly registered Google sign-in account to Administrator.

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 · high confidence

The Contest Gallery plugin for WordPress has a privilege escalation vulnerability where the RegistryUserRole option can be overwritten by authenticated users with author-level access or higher. The plugin fails to validate this role parameter against an allowlist and passes the user-controlled value directly to wp_update_user(), allowing attackers to register a new Google user and have that account automatically promoted to Administrator.

MitigationUpdate to the latest version of the plugin when available. Until then, disable the Google sign-in feature and restrict plugin admin access to Administrator-level users only.

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
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

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

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 Contest Gallery plugin is installed
    Navigate to WordPress admin > Plugins and confirm 'Contest Gallery' appears in the installed plugins list
    Affected if Plugin is installed and active
  2. Check installed plugin version
    In Plugins list, click on Contest Gallery details or view the plugin files to locate the version number in the main PHP file header comment
    Affected if Version is older than the fixed release (compare to official WordPress repository for current version)
  3. Confirm Google sign-in feature is enabled
    Go to Contest Gallery settings > Google Login or Registry settings. Look for any option enabling Google authentication or 'RegistryUserRole' configuration
    Affected if Google sign-in or registry feature is enabled in plugin settings
  4. Inspect RegistryUserRole option value
    Access WordPress database via phpMyAdmin or wp-cli: `wp option get RegistryUserRole` or query the wp_options table where option_name='RegistryUserRole'
    Affected if The RegistryUserRole value is set to 'administrator' or any role beyond the intended limited role
  5. Check user access levels for plugin settings
    Navigate to Contest Gallery admin pages and verify which user roles can access the role configuration. Also query: `wp roles list` or inspect user capabilities
    Affected if Users with author-level or higher can access and modify the RegistryUserRole setting

A user is affected if the Contest Gallery plugin is active with Google sign-in or registry enabled, and the RegistryUserRole option can be modified by author-level users or is set to administrator.

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 to the latest version of the plugin when available. Until then, disable the Google sign-in feature and restrict plugin admin access to Administrator-level users only.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,420
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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-2026-12165 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
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