Booking Package <= 1.7.16 - Authenticated (Editor+) Privilege Escalation via Account Takeover to updateUser AJAX Action
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 1.7.17
- Affected Plugin
- Booking Package
- Affected Version
<= 1.7.16- CVSS
- 7.2High
- Weakness type
- CWE-639 · Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key
- CVE
CVE-2026-9851
At a glance
CVE-2026-9851 is a high-severity Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key vulnerability in the Booking Package WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.7.16. It carries a CVSS score of 7.2 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Editor level or above. The issue is fixed in version 1.7.17; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed June 2026, reported by Md. Moniruzzaman Prodhan (NomanProdhan).
Vulnerability Overview
The Booking Package plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation via Account Takeover in versions up to, and including, 1.7.16. This is due to a missing capability check on the 'updateUser' branch of the package_app_action AJAX endpoint, where the handler only validates a nonce and the dispatcher invokes Schedule::updateUser() with the $administrator argument hard-coded to 1, bypassing the only owner-restriction check inside that function and allowing the target user to be determined solely by attacker-supplied input passed directly to wp_update_user(). This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Editor-level access and above, to change the email address and password of any account, including Administrator accounts, resulting in a full site takeover.
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. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.
CWE-639: Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key
Booking Package <= 1.7.16 carries this weakness at updateUser, and reaching it takes an account at Editor level or above. Authorization bypass through a user-controlled key, often called insecure direct object reference, means the application looks up a record by an identifier from the request without checking that the caller owns it.
Changing a number in the request is enough to read or modify other users' records, which on commerce and membership sites means customer data. For Booking Package the fix is 1.7.17: builds <= 1.7.16 are affected, anything from 1.7.17 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 1.7.17, 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: Booking Package 1.7.17 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Login Security
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Same weakness class
Other vulnerabilities in Booking Package
- 7.5CVE-2026-15335: Booking Package <= 1.7.20 SQL Injection
CVE-2026-15335 - 7.5CVE-2022-0709: Booking Package <= 1.5.28 Sensitive Data Disclosure
CVE-2022-0709 - 6.1CVE-2024-13508: Booking Package <= 1.6.72 Reflected XSS
CVE-2024-13508 - 6.1CVE-2023-39918: Booking Package <= 1.6.01 Reflected XSS
CVE-2023-39918 - 6.1CVE-2021-20840: Booking Package <= 1.5.10 Reflected XSS
CVE-2021-20840 - 5.3CVE-2026-4911: Booking Package <= 1.7.06 Price Manipulation
CVE-2026-4911 - 5.3CVE-2026-40774: Booking Package <= 1.7.06 Missing Authorization
CVE-2026-40774 - 5.3CVE-2024-30516: Booking Package <= 1.6.27 Price Manipulation
CVE-2024-30516
Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C