Vulnerability · Published Aug 15, 2026 · Assigned by Wordfence
CVE-2026-19598Pods <= 3.3.9 - Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation via Authorization Bypass to Admin Methods via 'pods_admin' AJAX Router
Critical 9.8
In plain English
A critical-severity incorrect authorization in Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields from sc0ttkclark. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 2.3% (higher than 83% of all known vulnerabilities). Ready-made attack tooling exists: Nuclei, public proof-of-concept code.
Official description
The Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation via Authorization Bypass in all versions up to, and including, 3.3.9. The vulnerability exists because the pods_admin AJAX router funnels every access check — including the method allowlist, nonce verification, login enforcement, and capability gate — through pods_error(), which under the JSON meta-box-loader compatibility path only writes failures to the PHP error log and returns false instead of terminating the request, rendering all guards ineffective. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to escalate their privileges to Administrator or overwrite the password of any user account, including the site owner's, enabling complete site takeover, or perform another administrator action.
Affected products (as reported)
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| sc0ttkclark | Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields | 2.8 – through 2.8.23.32.9 – through 2.9.19.33.0 – through 3.0.10.33.1 – through 3.1.4.13.2 – through 3.2.8.23.3 – through 3.3.9 |
Weakness: CWE-863 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H