CVE-2026-4021Contest Gallery <= 28.1.5 - Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation Admin Account Takeover via Registration Confirmation Email-to-ID Type Confusion
Updated under an hour ago ()
Does this affect you?
It affects contest-gallery Contest Gallery – Upload & Vote Photos, Media, Sell with PayPal & Stripe. Add what you run to find out whether that includes you.
No exploitation reported and no EPSS estimate yet.
The Contest Gallery plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to an authentication bypass leading to admin account takeover in all versions up to, and including, 28.1.5. This is due to the email confirmation handler in `users-registry-check-after-email-or-pin-confirmation.php` using the user's email string in a `WHERE ID = %s` clause instead of the numeric user ID, combined with an unauthenticated key-based login endpoint in `ajax-functions-frontend.php`. When the non-default `RegMailOptional=1` setting is enabled, an attacker can register with a crafted email starting with the target user ID (e.g., `1poc@example.test`), trigger the confirmation flow to overwrite the admin's `user_activation_key` via MySQL integer coercion, and then use the `post_cg1l_login_user_by_key` AJAX action to authenticate as the admin without any credentials. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to take over any WordPress administrator account and gain full site control.
- CVSS
- 8.1 HIGH (v3.1, CNA)CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- Weakness (CWE)
- CWE-287
- Known exploited
- Not in CISA's KEV catalog
- EPSS (exploitation in the next 30 days)
- Not loaded for this CVE
- Assigned by
- Wordfence
- NVD analysis
- Deferred
- Record last updated
- Apr 8, 2026
- First seen by InfoSec Signals
- Oct 9, 2026
The CVE record on cve.org NVD's entry
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