CVE-2026-118267WP Data Access <= 5.5.89 - Incorrect Authorization to Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation via 'key' and 'val' Parameters on app/update, app/delete, app/insert

Official description

The WP Data Access – App Builder for Tables, Forms, Dashboards, Charts & Maps plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Incorrect Authorization leading to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 5.5.89 This is due to the plugin's write endpoints (`wpda/app/update`, `wpda/app/delete`, `wpda/app/insert`) passing the attacker-supplied `key` and `val` parameters directly to `$wpdadb->update`, `$wpdadb->delete`, and `$wpdadb->insert` without enforcing the container's row-filter (`defaultWhere`) or per-column allow-list (`isSelected`) restrictions that are correctly applied on the read endpoints. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to write to arbitrary rows and columns outside the configured restrictions — including overwriting the `user_pass` field of the WordPress administrator account in `wp_users` — and subsequently authenticate as the administrator, achieving full site takeover. Exploitation requires an administrator to have published a Data App that enables write transactions (update, delete, or insert) for Subscriber-level or anonymous users, which is an explicitly advertised use-case of the plugin. Exploitation by unauthenticated attackers requires that the administrator has published a Data App whose rest_api.authorization is 'anonymous' and whose container has transactions.update (or delete/insert) enabled. On a default installation, where that is not configured, the vulnerability requires attackers with subscriber-level access and above.

Affected products (as reported)

References

• https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/a81029fe-db29-4dd4-8450-65d1764855f1?source=cve
• https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-data-access/tags/5.5.89/WPDataAccess/API/WPDA_Apps.php#L1213
• https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-data-access/tags/5.5.89/WPDataAccess/API/WPDA_Apps.php#L1267
• https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-data-access/tags/5.5.89/WPDataAccess/API/WPDA_Apps.php#L1186
• https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-data-access/tags/5.5.89/WPDataAccess/API/WPDA_Table.php#L665
• https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-data-access/tags/5.5.89/WPDataAccess/API/WPDA_Apps.php#L382
• https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?reponame=&new=3771310%40wp-data-access%2Ftags%2F5.5.90&old=3761178%40wp-data-access%2Ftags%2F5.5.89