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CVE-2026-19598criticalobserved exploitationCWE-863

Pods <= 3.3.9 - Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation via Authorization Bypass to Admin Methods via 'pods_admin' AJAX Router

85Vexday Risk Score

Patch now. It exploitation observed by VulnCheck and has a working public exploit.

ssvc Actcvss 9.8epss 2.8%
from disclosure to weapon3 days
Published on NVDAug 15
1st PoC+3d
VulnCheckAug 15
exploitation probability
2.8%top 15% of all CVEs
observed exploitation
yesVulnCheck
5 public exploit(s)
The Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation via Authorization Bypass in all versions up to, and including, 3.3.9. The vulnerability exists because the pods_admin AJAX router funnels every access check — including the method allowlist, nonce verification, login enforcement, and capability gate — through pods_error(), which under the JSON meta-box-loader compatibility path only writes failures to the PHP error log and returns false instead of terminating the request, rendering all guards ineffective. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to escalate their privileges to Administrator or overwrite the password of any user account, including the site owner's, enabling complete site takeover, or perform another administrator action.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
⚠ Public resources, to assess the exposure of systems you control or are authorized to test. Test only with authorization.