CVE-2026-16563

Academy LMS <= 3.8.2 - Missing Authorization to Authenticated (Subscriber+) Arbitrary Lesson Content Disclosure

2026-07-24 00:00
Pedro Pinho

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 3.8.3
Affected Plugin
Academy LMS – AI Course Builder, Quizzes, Certificates & eLearning
Affected Version
<= 3.8.2
CVSS
4.3Medium
Weakness type
CWE-862 · Missing Authorization
CVE
CVE-2026-16563
View all Academy LMS – AI Course Builder, Quizzes, Certificates & eLearning vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2026-16563 is a medium-severity Missing Authorization vulnerability in the Academy LMS WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 3.8.2. It carries a CVSS score of 4.3 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Subscriber level or above. The issue is fixed in version 3.8.3; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed July 2026, reported by Pedro Pinho.

Vulnerability Overview

The Academy LMS plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized access in versions up to, and including, 3.8.2. This is due to missing enrollment and course-access validation in the lessons REST API get_item() function, which set author_id to null for any user with the academy_student role, allowing unrestricted lesson content retrieval. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with subscriber-level access and above, to read arbitrary lesson content, including content from courses they are not enrolled in, by enumerating lesson IDs via the lessons REST endpoint.

Technical Analysis

The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, with low attack complexity — no special timing or configuration is needed, and no interaction from a victim user.

CWE-862: Missing Authorization

Academy LMS <= 3.8.2 carries this weakness at get_item(), and reaching it takes an account at Subscriber level or above. A missing authorization check means a function is reachable by anyone who can reach the endpoint, because the code never asks whether the caller is allowed to perform the action.

Any user who can reach the endpoint gets to run an action reserved for higher-privileged roles, from reading protected data to changing settings or content. For Academy LMS the fix is 3.8.3: builds <= 3.8.2 are affected, anything from 3.8.3 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 3.8.3, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

Because it turns on account access, WordSec's login security is the relevant layer: role-based two-factor, captcha and brute-force limits raise the cost of getting the account this needs. None of that substitutes for the fix: Academy LMS 3.8.3 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Login Security
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-16563https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/4e77168e-079e-4c48-9c3a-cb8bfb3d3e53https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-16563

Related records

Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C