# CVE-2026-16635: Pronamic Pay <= 10.1.0 - Authenticated (Subscriber+) Privilege Escalation via Gravity Forms 'Update user role' Field

> Authenticated attackers can escalate privileges to Administrator by manipulating Gravity Forms role fields in the Pronamic Pay WordPress 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:** 1 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 3 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-72h4-7f42-rjh6

## What is CVE-2026-16635?

CVE-2026-16635 is a high-severity vulnerability in Pronamic Pay, published on 1 Aug 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The Pronamic Pay plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 10.1.0 This is due to the `maybe_update_user_role()` function passing an attacker-controlled Gravity Forms field value (`$lead[$feed->user_role_field_id]`) directly into `WP_User::set_role()` without any allowlist validation, capability comparison, or permission check to constrain which roles can be assigned. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to escalate their own WordPress account to Administrator by tampering with the role field value in a form submission. Exploitation requires that an administrator has already configured a Pronamic Pay payment feed in Gravity Forms with the **Update User Role** option enabled and mapped to a form field; once that configuration is in place, no further preconditions exist to prevent an authenticated attacker from exploiting this vulnerability.

Weakness: CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-16635?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-16635?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-16635 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-16635 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-16635 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-16635 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-16635 is a high-severity vulnerability in Pronamic Pay, published on 1 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-2026-16635 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Pronamic Pay. 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-2026-16635/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-16635/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-16635
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-16635
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-16635

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-16635/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.