# CVE-2026-12165: Contest Gallery <= 30.0.2 - Authenticated (Author+) Privilege Escalation via 'RegistryUserRole' Parameter

> Authenticated authors can escalate privileges to administrator by manipulating the RegistryUserRole parameter in the Contest Gallery plugin.

- **Severity:** High 8.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 17 Jun 2026
- **Updated:** 17 Jun 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-2mpv-c59f-r8f4

## What is CVE-2026-12165?

CVE-2026-12165 is a high-severity vulnerability in contest-gallery Contest Gallery – Upload & Vote Photos, Media, Sell with PayPal & Stripe, published on 17 Jun 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The Contest Gallery – Upload & Vote Photos, Media, Sell with PayPal & Stripe plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 30.0.2 via the `RegistryUserRole` parameter. This is due to the plugin's admin menu being registered at the `edit_posts` capability level — granting Contributor-level users access to the plugin's admin pages and a valid `cg_admin` nonce — while the option-saving handler in `change-options-and-sizes.php` performs no `current_user_can()` capability check beyond `check_admin_referer('cg_admin')`, and the `RegistryUserRole` value is processed only through `sanitize_text_field()` and `htmlentities()` without restriction to an allowlist of permitted role names. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with author-level access and above, to overwrite the plugin's stored `RegistryUserRole` option with `administrator`, which the `cg_create_wp_user_from_google_user` function then reads back from the `contest_gal1ery_registry_and_login_options` database table without any allowlist validation and passes directly to `wp_update_user()`, effectively promoting a newly registered Google sign-in account to Administrator.

Weakness: CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-12165?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-12165?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-12165 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-12165 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-12165 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-12165 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-12165 is a high-severity vulnerability in contest-gallery Contest Gallery – Upload & Vote Photos, Media, Sell with PayPal & Stripe, published on 17 Jun 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-12165 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: contest-gallery Contest Gallery – Upload & Vote Photos, Media, Sell with PayPal & Stripe. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-12165/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-12165/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-12165
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-12165
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-12165

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-12165/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.