# CVE-2026-75927: Privilege escalation in User Role Editor – PublishPress Capabilities: Access Control and User Roles

> Authenticated Editors can escalate privileges to manage site roles and settings due to automatic capability grants in the PublishPress Capabilities plugin.

- **Severity:** High 7.2 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 9 Sep 2026
- **Updated:** 11 Sep 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-pv68-4cpj-v6j3

## What is CVE-2026-75927?

CVE-2026-75927 is a high-severity vulnerability in User Role Editor – PublishPress Capabilities: Access Control and User Roles, published on 9 Sep 2026. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The PublishPress Capabilities – User Role Editor, Access Permissions, User Capabilities, Admin Menus plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 2.50.0. This is due to the `addPluginCapabilities()` function unconditionally granting the Editor role all 15 `manage_capabilities_*` capabilities — including `manage_capabilities`, `manage_capabilities_roles`, `manage_capabilities_settings`, and `manage_capabilities_backup` — via a hard-coded `$eligible_roles = ['administrator', 'editor']` assignment that runs automatically on the first `admin_init` after plugin activation with no administrator opt-in, persisting the grants directly to the database. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers with Editor-level access to elevate their privileges to a site-wide capability manager, enabling them to create, rename, and delete non-system roles, modify capabilities of non-administrator roles, restore role backups, and write arbitrary plugin options whose names begin with `cme_`, `capsman`, `pp_capabilities`, or `presspermit` via `update_option()`. The escalation stops short of full Administrator access, as WordPress's `map_meta_cap` layer still prevents the escalated Editor from granting administrator-only capabilities to other roles; however, all role-management and plugin-settings functionality gated solely on `manage_capabilities_*` capabilities remains fully accessible.

Weakness: CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-75927?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-75927?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-75927 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-75927 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-75927 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-75927 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-75927 is a high-severity vulnerability in User Role Editor – PublishPress Capabilities: Access Control and User Roles, published on 9 Sep 2026. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-75927 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: User Role Editor – PublishPress Capabilities: Access Control and User Roles. 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-2026-75927/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-75927/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-75927
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-75927
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-75927

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-75927/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.