# CVE-2026-14805: Consulting - Business, Finance WordPress Theme <= 6.7.16 - Authenticated (Subscriber+) Privilege Escalation via AJAX

> Authenticated subscribers can escalate privileges to administrator by manipulating transient values via an insecure AJAX endpoint and login mechanism.

- **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:** 15 Sep 2026
- **Updated:** 17 Sep 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-qhgg-3j23-p87j

## What is CVE-2026-14805?

CVE-2026-14805 is a high-severity vulnerability in StylemixThemes Consulting - Business, Finance WordPress Theme, published on 15 Sep 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The Consulting theme for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in versions up to, and including, 6.7.16. This is due to a combination of two flaws: (1) the masterstudy_ms_stm_set_discard_transient AJAX endpoint in admin/admin-notices/classes/STMHandler.php accepts an arbitrary transient key without capability checks or nonce validation, and (2) the developer access login mechanism in admin/classes/stm-theme-support.php authenticates users based on a transient value without proper cryptographic validation when in legacy string mode. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with subscriber-level access and above, to set the stm_developer_access_token transient to a known value (1), then authenticate as any existing user including administrators by visiting a specially crafted URL, thereby achieving full privilege escalation to administrator.

Weakness: CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-14805?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-14805?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-14805 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-14805 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-14805 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-14805 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-14805 is a high-severity vulnerability in StylemixThemes Consulting - Business, Finance WordPress Theme, published on 15 Sep 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-2026-14805 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: StylemixThemes Consulting - Business, Finance WordPress Theme. 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-2026-14805/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-14805/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-14805
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-14805
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-14805

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-14805/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.