Groundhogg <= 4.9 - Authenticated (Sales Person+) Privilege Escalation via Contact Identity Rebinding leading to Administrator Account Takeover to 'user_id' Parameter (v3 /contacts) chained with v4 /emails/test
What fixes it
No source in this snapshot names a fixed version.
Description
The Groundhogg — CRM, Newsletters, and Marketing Automation plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation via Contact Identity Rebinding in all versions up to, and including, 4.9 The vulnerability exists because the create_contact function in the v3 REST endpoint (POST /gh/v3/contacts) is gated solely by the add_contacts capability and forwards the full request payload — including the security-bearing user_id column — into the upsert path of Contacts_DB::add(), which bypasses the ownership guard that Contacts_DB::update() enforces, allowing an attacker to rebind any existing contact record to an arbitrary WordPress user ID. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers with Sales Representative-level access and above to upsert their own contact row to point to an Administrator's user ID, then invoke the v4 email-test endpoint (POST /gh/v4/emails/test) — also accessible to the Sales Representative role via the send_emails capability — to generate an {auto_login_url} one-time permissions key bound to the rebound contact, and consume that link to call wp_set_auth_cookie() and gain a fully authenticated session as the WordPress Administrator.
Text from CVE List
Affected versions 1
- Groundhogg — CRM, Newsletters, and Marketing Automationaffected: all versions through 4.9CVE List
References 9
- wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/557306b7-7b66-465e-8d4d-ebae5b1577c9?source=cveReferencevia CVE List
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groundhogg/tags/4.8.3/api/v3/contacts-api.php#L373Referencevia CVE List
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groundhogg/tags/4.8.3/db/contacts.php#L205Referencevia CVE List
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groundhogg/tags/4.8.3/api/v4/emails-api.php#L571Referencevia CVE List
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groundhogg/tags/4.8.3/includes/replacements.php#L2280Referencevia CVE List
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groundhogg/tags/4.8.3/includes/rewrites.php#L460Referencevia CVE List
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groundhogg/tags/4.8.3/includes/main-roles.php#L532Referencevia CVE List
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?reponame=&new=3724910%40groundhogg%2Ftags%2F4.9.1&old=3724058%40groundhogg%2Ftags%2F4.9Referencevia CVE List
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3724910/groundhogg/trunk/api/v3/contacts-api.phpReferencevia CVE List