# CVE-2026-16055: Contest Gallery < 30.0.7 - Unauthenticated Login-Protection and 2FA Bypass via post_cg_login

> Attackers can bypass 2FA and brute-force protections to guess passwords and take over accounts, including administrators, in the Contest Gallery plugin.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/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:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-p2hg-mp68-hg8x

## What is CVE-2026-16055?

CVE-2026-16055 is a high-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Unknown Contest Gallery, published on 5 Aug 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The Contest Gallery  WordPress plugin before 30.0.7 does not route its front-end login through the standard WordPress authentication flow, issuing an authentication cookie directly after the password check, which bypasses installed brute-force-protection and two-factor-authentication Contest Gallery  WordPress plugin before 30.0.7 and enables unlimited, unthrottled password guessing against any account (including administrators) up to full account takeover.

Weakness: CWE-287 (Improper Authentication)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-16055?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-16055?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-16055 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-16055 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-16055 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-16055 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-16055 is a high-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Unknown Contest Gallery, published on 5 Aug 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-2026-16055 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Unknown Contest Gallery. 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-2026-16055/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-16055/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-16055
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-16055
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-16055

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-16055/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.