Vulnerability · Published Oct 16, 2026 · Assigned by Wordfence
CVE-2026-104755WP Compress <= 7.25.00 - Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation to 'group'/'setting'/'value' Parameters on comms Endpoint
Medium 4.8
In plain English
A medium-severity privilege mismanagement in WP Compress – Instant Performance & Speed Optimization from aresit. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.3% (higher than 24% of all known vulnerabilities).
Official description
The WP Compress – Instant Performance & Speed Optimization plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 7.25.00 The vulnerability exists because the `start_comms` dispatcher (`wps_ic_comms::start_comms`), hooked on every front-end request, gates access only by comparing the caller-supplied `apikey` parameter against the stored plugin API key with no WordPress capability check and no nonce verification, then passes the unvalidated `group`, `setting`, and `value` parameters directly to `change_setting()`, which writes them into the `WPS_IC_SETTINGS` option without an allow-list. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to write arbitrary permission keys into the plugin's settings, causing `wps_ic_users::checkAndAddCaps()` to grant any WordPress role — including Subscriber — the `manage_wpc_settings` capability and thereby achieve plugin-administrator-equivalent control over the plugin's optimization, CDN, and critical-CSS surfaces. The API key required to pass the authorization check can itself be obtained without authentication via the `wpc_send_critical_remote` nopriv AJAX action: when the external critical-CSS service returns an `apiResults` field, `initCritical()` echoes the stored plugin API key back to the caller in a `wp_send_json_success` response, completing the exploit chain entirely without a WordPress login.
Affected products (as reported)
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| aresit | WP Compress – Instant Performance & Speed Optimization | 0 – through 7.25.00 |
Weakness: CWE-269 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
References
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/67e9bfb8-b274-422a-a50d-a6b6b24bb193?source=cve
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-compress-image-optimizer/tags/7.10.03/classes/comms.class.php#L49
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-compress-image-optimizer/tags/7.10.03/classes/users.class.php#L30
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-compress-image-optimizer/tags/7.10.03/classes/comms.class.php#L1042
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-compress-image-optimizer/tags/7.10.03/classes/ajax.class.php#L816
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-compress-image-optimizer/tags/7.10.03/addons/criticalCss/criticalCss.php#L409
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?reponame=&new=3734610%40wp-compress-image-optimizer%2Ftags%2F7.26.00&old=3723132%40wp-compress-image-optimizer%2Ftags%2F7.25.00