Debugger & Troubleshooter <= 1.3.2 - Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation to Administrator via Cookie Manipulation

MITRE NVD CVE.ORG Print: PDF PDF

Summary

CVECVE-2026-5130
StatePUBLISHED
AssignerWordfence
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2026-03-30 23:17:04 UTC
Updated2026-04-01 14:24:02 UTC
DescriptionThe Debugger & Troubleshooter plugin for WordPress was vulnerable to Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation in versions up to and including 1.3.2. This was due to the plugin accepting the wp_debug_troubleshoot_simulate_user cookie value directly as a user ID without any cryptographic validation or authorization checks. The cookie value was used to override the determine_current_user filter, which allowed unauthenticated attackers to impersonate any user by simply setting the cookie to their target user ID. This made it possible for unauthenticated attackers to gain administrator-level access and perform any privileged actions including creating new administrator accounts, modifying site content, installing plugins, or taking complete control of the WordPress site. The vulnerability was fixed in version 1.4.0 by implementing a cryptographic token-based validation system where only administrators can initiate user simulation, and the cookie contains a random 64-character token that must be validated against database-stored mappings rather than accepting arbitrary user IDs.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 8.8 HIGH from [email protected]

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

EPSS: 0.000220000 probability, percentile 0.059460000 (date 2026-04-01)

Problem Types: CWE-565 | CWE-565 CWE-565 Reliance on Cookies without Validation and Integrity Checking

VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
3.1[email protected]Primary8.8HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
3.1CNADECLARED8.8HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

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

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA Jhimross Debugger Troubleshooter affected * 1.3.2 semver Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3486202/debugger-troubleshooter/trunk/debug-trouble... [email protected] plugins.trac.wordpress.org
plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/debugger-troubleshooter/tags/1.3.2/debug-troubleshoot... [email protected] plugins.trac.wordpress.org
plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/debugger-troubleshooter/tags/1.3.2/debug-troubleshoot... [email protected] plugins.trac.wordpress.org
www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/3e037931-870f-45eb-973c-02769... [email protected] www.wordfence.com
CVE Program record CVE.ORG www.cve.org canonical
NVD vulnerability detail NVD nvd.nist.gov canonical, analysis

Vendor Comments And Credit

Discovery Credit

CNA: Nabil Irawan (en)

Additional Advisory Data

SourceTimeEvent
CNA2026-03-30T09:30:13.000ZDisclosed
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