Description

Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation in Meta Box AIO <= 3.7.1 versions.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "9.8",
  "pubDate": "2026-10-06T09:17:48.010Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-10-06T09:17:48.010Z",
  "executiveSummary": "The Meta Box AIO plugin, in versions 3.7.1 and below, contains a critical security vulnerability that allows unauthenticated remote attackers to perform unauthorized privilege escalation.\nThe flaw stems from insufficient access control checks within the plugin's core functionality, enabling an attacker to manipulate user roles or permissions without requiring valid credentials or administrative authorization.\nThis vulnerability is classified as an Improper Access Control issue, potentially leading to a complete compromise of the affected WordPress installation.\nBy successfully exploiting this weakness, an unauthorized actor can gain administrative-level access, thereby facilitating unauthorized data access, content modification, or total site takeover.\nGiven that the exploit does not require prior authentication, the risk level is high, making it a priority for immediate remediation by site administrators.\nAffected systems include any WordPress environment utilizing the Meta Box AIO plugin version 3.7.1 or earlier.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability resides in the internal processing logic of the Meta Box AIO plugin, where user-supplied inputs and AJAX action requests are not adequately validated for authenticity or user privileges.\nThe root cause is a failure to implement appropriate capability checks on sensitive administrative endpoints. Specifically, the plugin fails to verify the current user's session state and authorization level before executing functions that modify user metadata or system configuration settings.\nThe attack flow begins with an unauthenticated request targeting the vulnerable endpoint exposed by the plugin. Because the backend logic lacks a check for 'current_user_can()' or similar WordPress privilege verification functions, the application proceeds to execute the requested action as if initiated by a privileged user.\nThe exploitation method involves crafting a malicious HTTP request that triggers the vulnerable function. An attacker can leverage this to modify the permissions associated with their own user account or escalate an existing low-privileged account to the Administrator role.\nThe vulnerable component is primarily located within the core request-handling classes of the Meta Box AIO package, where AJAX handlers do not enforce nonces or permission gates. This exposure allows for remote exploitation over the network, as the interface is directly accessible to external entities interacting with the site's front-end or common administration triggers.\nPost-exploitation impact is severe. Once an attacker has escalated privileges to the Administrator level, they gain full access to the WordPress dashboard. This level of access grants the capability to install arbitrary plugins, modify themes, inject malicious code into the database, exfiltrate sensitive site data, or establish persistent backdoors.\nFurthermore, the absence of robust input sanitization coupled with the privilege escalation allows for a chain of exploitation where the attacker can execute arbitrary PHP code through various WordPress mechanisms now under their control, effectively bypassing all standard security boundaries of the CMS."
}