Paytium: Mollie payment forms & donations: Improper Privilege Management
CVE-2026-18467 is a critical-severity improper privilege management vulnerability in Paytium: Mollie payment forms & donations from Paytiumsupport, with a CVSS 3.1 base score of 9.8 out of 10. It can be exploited remotely over the network by an unauthenticated attacker, without any action from a user. Affected Paytium: Mollie payment forms & donations versions: 5.0.3 and earlier. The record does not name a fixed version, so check the vendor advisory. There is no confirmed exploitation so far. EPSS estimates a 0.41% chance of exploitation within 30 days, which is low compared with other CVEs.
Critical severity: a successful attack would have severe impact.
What to do
- Check which version of Paytium: Mollie payment forms & donations you run against the affected versions below, and install the vendor's latest release.
- Until you can update, restrict network access to the affected service so it is not reachable from untrusted networks.
Affected products and versions
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paytiumsupport | Paytium: Mollie payment forms & donations | 5.0.3 and earlier | Not stated |
Version data comes from the organisation that assigned the CVE. Confirm against the vendor advisory before deciding you are unaffected.
How the severity score breaks down
- Attack vector
- NetworkCan be exploited remotely over a network, including the internet.
- Attack complexity
- LowNo special conditions are needed; the attack works reliably.
- Privileges required
- NoneNo account or login is needed.
- User interaction
- NoneNo action by a victim is required.
- Scope
- UnchangedImpact stays within the vulnerable component.
- Confidentiality
- HighAll data handled by the component can be read.
- Integrity
- HighData or code can be modified at will.
- Availability
- HighThe component can be taken down completely.
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H. Scored by CNA (wordfence.com).
Official description
The Paytium: Mollie payment forms & donations plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 5.0.3. The 5.0.3 patch introduced a wp_hash()/hash_equals() signature gate on the pt-paytium-user-data field, but left a second filter — pt_cf_checkout_meta(), registered on the pt_meta_values hook after the signed builder — that copies every $_POST['pt_form_field'][*] key verbatim into the payment meta array without any signature verification; this allows the pt-user-role value it copies to overwrite the signed path's output, after which paytium_user_data_processing() reads the persisted _pt-user-role post meta and passes it directly as the role argument to wp_insert_user(). This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to register a new WordPress account with the administrator role and fully take over the site. Exploitation requires submitting a payment through a publicly-exposed [paytium] shortcode form and completing the resulting payment flow, after which the attacker can seize the new administrator account via the standard lost-password flow on their supplied email address.
Source: the CVE record as published by its numbering authority, via NVD and CVE.org.
The underlying weakness: Improper Privilege Management
The product does not properly assign, modify, track, or check privileges for an actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor.
How developers prevent this class of flaw
- Very carefully manage the setting, management, and handling of privileges. Explicitly manage trust zones in the software.
- Follow the principle of least privilege when assigning access rights to entities in a software system.
- Consider following the principle of separation of privilege. Require multiple conditions to be met before permitting access to a system resource.
More Improper Privilege Management vulnerabilities (CWE-269)
Timeline
- CVE record published.
- CISA published its SSVC assessment (exploitation: none, automatable: yes, technical impact: total).
References
Other references
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/paytium/tags/5.0.3/includes/payment-functions.php#L113
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/paytium/tags/5.0.3/includes/process-payment-functions.php#L1103
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/paytium/tags/5.0.3/includes/process-payment-functions.php#L21
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/paytium/tags/5.0.3/includes/process-payment-functions.php#L696
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/paytium/tags/5.0.3/includes/user-data-functions.php#L214
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3678569/paytium
- wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/caa1a42a-6bb2-42c8-aae7-fb1c895573a8?source=cve
Other vulnerabilities in Paytium: Mollie payment forms & donations
- 8.1 High severity
Recent Improper Privilege Management vulnerabilities
- 8.8 High severity
- 8.8 High severity
- 9.6 Critical severity
- 7.2 High severity
- 7.0 High severity
- 7.8 High severity
Spotted an error? Tell us.