CVE-2026-104798: My Calendar privilege escalation vulnerability
critical 9.8 published 2026-10-16
- Affected versions
- 3.4.24 and older, 3.5 to 3.5.21, 3.6 to 3.6.17, 3.7 to 3.7.17, 3.8 to 3.8.7
- Fixed in
- 3.8.11 *
- Latest version
- 3.8.12
- Severity
- Critical · CVSS 9.8
- Active installs
- 20,000+
- Type
- Privilege escalation
* The source does not name a fixed version; this is the first wordpress.org release after the last affected version.
What an attacker needs
- Access: None. No account or login is needed.
CVSS vector (score by Wordfence): CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
What to do now
- Update My Calendar to 3.8.11 or newer (the latest is 3.8.12): Dashboard → Updates, or Plugins → “update now”.
- If you cannot update right away, deactivate it until you can.
- Turn on auto-updates for it: Plugins → “Enable auto-updates” on its row.
- Not sure which version you run? Check your version against every known My Calendar issue.
With WP-CLI:
wp plugin get my-calendar --field=version. - If you ran an affected version and something looks off (new admin users, spam pages, redirects), run the free scan below.
The advisory
The My Calendar – Accessible Event Manager plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 3.8.7. The public `mcs` GET parameter is reflected into post content unsanitized before WordPress core's `do_shortcode` filter runs, allowing an unauthenticated attacker to inject a nested `[my_calendar above=...]` shortcode; `mc_generate_calendar_nav()` then splits the `above` attribute on commas and dispatches each element via `call_user_func()` with no authentication, authorization, or callable allowlist check. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to invoke arbitrary loaded PHP functions, enabling a call chain in which the shortcode `$params` array is passed to `edit_user()` — which PHP coerces to integer `1` as the `$user_id` argument — overwriting the credentials of the initial Administrator account (user ID 1) and granting the attacker full wp-admin access. Exploitation is trivially reachable via the plugin's auto-generated `/my-calendar/` page, which is publicly accessible by default upon plugin activation.
References
- NVD CVE-2026-104798 nvd.nist.gov
- Wordfence advisory www.wordfence.com
- Code change (fix) plugins.trac.wordpress.org
- Plugin source plugins.trac.wordpress.org
Related
Ran an affected version? Check your site for signs of a hack
The free scan reads the public side of your site and looks for spam pages, hidden redirects, injected scripts and blacklist entries. No login, no install, about a minute.
Where this data comes from
- CVE record, score and references: NIST National Vulnerability Database (NVD), checked 2026-11-04. This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.
- Versions and install counts: wordpress.org/plugins/my-calendar (Plugins API), fetched 2026-11-04.
- The summary, “what an attacker needs” and “what to do” sections are our plain-English reading of the record and the plugin's release history; the quoted description is the record's own text. Spot an error? Email Daniel.