CVE-2026-59540

SMS Alert – SMS & OTP for WooCommerce, Order Notifications & Abandoned Cart Recovery <= 3.9.6 - Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation

2026-07-22 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 3.9.7
Affected Plugin: SMS Alert – SMS & OTP for WooCommerce, Order Notifications & Abandoned Cart Recovery
Affected Version: <= 3.9.6
CVSS: 9.8Critical
Weakness type: CWE-266 · Incorrect Privilege Assignment
CVE: CVE-2026-59540

View all SMS Alert – SMS & OTP for WooCommerce, Order Notifications & Abandoned Cart Recovery vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2026-59540 is a critical-severity Incorrect Privilege Assignment vulnerability in the SMS Alert WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 3.9.6. 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 3.9.7; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed July 2026, reported by Taylsec.

Vulnerability Overview

The SMS Alert – SMS & OTP for WooCommerce, Order Notifications & Abandoned Cart Recovery plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 3.9.6. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to elevate their privileges.

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-266: Incorrect Privilege Assignment

A product incorrectly assigns a privilege to a particular actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor.

Remediation

Update to version 3.9.7, 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: SMS Alert 3.9.7 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Login Security
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-59540 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/0f6d3435-61b9-4986-9da9-b58d1bbc2271 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-59540

Related records

Other vulnerabilities in SMS Alert – SMS & OTP for WooCommerce, Order Notifications & Abandoned Cart Recovery

CVSS Vector

9.8

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityHigh
IntegrityHigh
AvailabilityHigh

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