CVE-2026-104022 kodezen CVE debrief

Who should care

WordPress administrators, security teams, and users with the `academy_guardian` role or higher should assess exposure and verify user roles and capabilities. Affected operators and platform administrators should review the vulnerability details and assess the potential impact on their systems. Vulnerability management teams should prioritize verifying exposure of WordPress installations using Academy LMS plugin version 4.0.3 or earlier.

Why it matters

CVE-2026-104022 is a Privilege Escalation vulnerability in Academy LMS plugin for WordPress that allows authenticated attackers to elevate user privileges, potentially leading to unauthorized access and malicious activity.

• Elevation of privileges for authenticated attackers
• Potential unauthorized access to sensitive data
• Increased risk of malicious activity
• Need for verification of user roles and capabilities

Technical summary

The Academy LMS plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation due to improper validation in the `add_child()` function. This allows authenticated attackers with the `academy_guardian` role or higher to elevate any existing WordPress account to the `academy_student` role, gaining `edit_posts` and potentially `upload_files` capabilities. The vulnerability exists due to the `add_child()` function calling `add_role('academy_student')` on any existing account resolved from the attacker-supplied `email` parameter before validating the guardian-ward relationship. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers to elevate privileges.

Defensive priority

Defenders should prioritize verifying exposure of WordPress installations using Academy LMS plugin version 4.0.3 or earlier and assess user roles and capabilities.

Recommended defensive actions

• Verify WordPress installations using Academy LMS plugin version 4.0.3 or earlier
• Assess user roles and capabilities
• Restrict `add_child` REST endpoint access to authorized users
• Monitor for suspicious role elevation attempts
• Review compensating controls for exposed systems while remediation is scheduled and verified
• Check relevant monitoring, detection, and logs for exposed assets that need extra review
• Track exceptions, retest remediated assets, and close the item only after evidence is documented.

Evidence notes

The vulnerability exists due to the `add_child()` function calling `add_role('academy_student')` on any existing account resolved from the attacker-supplied `email` parameter before validating the guardian-ward relationship. This allows authenticated attackers with the `academy_guardian` role or higher to elevate privileges.

Sources and references

Methodology and review provenance

AI-assisted synthesis based on stored public vulnerability evidence. System validation, approval state, and publication status do not by themselves establish human review of this revision. PatchSiren helps prioritize defensive review and does not prove exposure or remediation on any system.