Incorrect AuthorizationWeakness · CWE-863

CVE-2026-54803

CRITICAL · 9.8 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 →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges 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
Subscriber Privilege Escalation in SMS Alert Order Notifications <= 3.9.4 versions.

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 SMS Alert Order Notifications WordPress plugin versions 3.9.4 and below contains a privilege escalation vulnerability allowing authenticated users with subscriber-level access to elevate their privileges to administrative levels, likely through improper capability validation in the order notification processing.

MitigationUpgrade to version greater than 3.9.4 immediately. If no patched version is available, disable the plugin and implement additional access controls at the server level to restrict subscriber role permissions.

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
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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. Confirm the SMS Alert plugin is installed
    Navigate to WordPress admin > Plugins and look for 'SMS Alert Order Notifications' or inspect the plugin directory /wp-content/plugins/ for folders containing 'sms-alert' or similar naming
    Affected if The plugin is present in the plugins directory
  2. Identify the installed plugin version
    Check the plugin header in the main plugin file (typically /wp-content/plugins/[plugin-folder]/sms-alert.php or similar) for the 'Version:' field, or view the plugin details in WordPress Plugins admin page
    Affected if The version listed is 3.9.4 or lower
  3. Verify the order notification feature is active
    Check WordPress options table for plugin settings, or inspect /wp-admin/admin.php?page=sms-alert-settings for active notification triggers related to orders
    Affected if Order notification processing is enabled and configured to trigger on order events
  4. Confirm subscriber-level accounts exist
    In WordPress admin go to Users > All Users and check for users with the 'Subscriber' role, or query the wp_usermeta table for wp_capabilities containing 'subscriber'
    Affected if Any user accounts with subscriber role exist on the site
  5. Check current role capability configuration
    Inspect wp_options for wp_user_roles or review Roles under Users > Users in admin to verify subscriber role permissions, specifically looking for capabilities beyond standard subscriber access
    Affected if Subscriber role has been granted elevated capabilities or the plugin adds custom capabilities to low-privilege roles

Your environment is affected if the SMS Alert Order Notifications plugin is installed at version 3.9.4 or below and the order notification feature is active, allowing subscriber-level users to potentially escalate privileges through the plugin's notification processing.

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

Upgrade to version greater than 3.9.4 immediately. If no patched version is available, disable the plugin and implement additional access controls at the server level to restrict subscriber role permissions.

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
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,696.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-54803 — 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-2026-54803 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