CVE-2026-12526

Advanced Custom Fields: Extended < 0.9.2.7 - Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation via Administrator Account Takeover

2026-08-31 00:00
Khaled Alenazi

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 0.9.2.7
Affected Plugin
Advanced Custom Fields: Extended
Affected Version
< 0.9.2.7
CVSS
9.8Critical
Weakness type
CWE-620 · Unverified Password Change
CVE
CVE-2026-12526
View all Advanced Custom Fields: Extended vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2026-12526 is a critical-severity Unverified Password Change vulnerability in the Advanced Custom Fields WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 0.9.2.7. It carries a CVSS score of 9.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 0.9.2.7; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed August 2026, reported by Khaled Alenazi.

Vulnerability Overview

The Advanced Custom Fields: Extended plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to privilege escalation via account takeover in all versions up to 0.9.2.7 (exclusive). This is due to the plugin not properly validating a user's identity prior to updating their password. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to change arbitrary user's passwords, including administrators, and leverage that to gain access to their account.

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 privileges on the target site, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

CWE-620: Unverified Password Change

Reaching this weakness in Advanced Custom Fields < 0.9.2.7 takes no account at all. Unverified password change means the password-update path does not require proof that the requester is the account owner.

An attacker who can reach the endpoint takes over the account outright, and the legitimate owner is locked out of it. For Advanced Custom Fields the fix is 0.9.2.7: builds < 0.9.2.7 are affected, anything from 0.9.2.7 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 0.9.2.7, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

This one needs no account at all, which puts it outside what login hardening can reach; WordSec's login security narrows the account-level paths around it, and the firewall is what inspects the request itself. None of that substitutes for the fix: Advanced Custom Fields 0.9.2.7 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Login Security
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-12526https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/72a179af-25a0-40f2-a585-8d25c0289782https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-12526

Related records

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