# CVE-2026-97644: Privilege escalation in Groundhogg — CRM, Newsletters, and Marketing Automation

> Authenticated users with Sales Representative access can escalate privileges to Administrator by rebinding contact records to admin user IDs and exploiting email test endpoints.

- **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:** 3 Oct 2026
- **Updated:** 3 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-9c9v-5p57-4qfm

## What is CVE-2026-97644?

CVE-2026-97644 is a high-severity vulnerability in trainingbusinesspros Groundhogg — CRM, Newsletters, and Marketing Automation, published on 3 Oct 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The Groundhogg — CRM, Newsletters, and Marketing Automation plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation via Contact Identity Rebinding in all versions up to, and including, 4.9 The vulnerability exists because the `create_contact` function in the v3 REST endpoint (`POST /gh/v3/contacts`) is gated solely by the `add_contacts` capability and forwards the full request payload — including the security-bearing `user_id` column — into the upsert path of `Contacts_DB::add()`, which bypasses the ownership guard that `Contacts_DB::update()` enforces, allowing an attacker to rebind any existing contact record to an arbitrary WordPress user ID. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers with Sales Representative-level access and above to upsert their own contact row to point to an Administrator's user ID, then invoke the v4 email-test endpoint (`POST /gh/v4/emails/test`) — also accessible to the Sales Representative role via the `send_emails` capability — to generate an `{auto_login_url}` one-time permissions key bound to the rebound contact, and consume that link to call `wp_set_auth_cookie()` and gain a fully authenticated session as the WordPress Administrator.

Weakness: CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-97644?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-97644?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-97644 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-97644 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-97644 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-97644 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-97644 is a high-severity vulnerability in trainingbusinesspros Groundhogg — CRM, Newsletters, and Marketing Automation, published on 3 Oct 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-2026-97644 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: trainingbusinesspros Groundhogg — CRM, Newsletters, and Marketing Automation. 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-2026-97644/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-97644/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-97644
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-97644
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-97644

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-97644/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.