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CVE-2026-109400: InstaWP Connect privilege escalation vulnerability

high 7.5 published 2026-10-16

Fixed in InstaWP Connect 0.1.4.2 (first release after the affected range)

InstaWP Connect 0.1.4.1 and older is affected by this privilege escalation issue. Sites on 0.1.4.2 or newer are not affected; the latest release is 0.1.4.4.

Affected versions
0.1.4.1 and older
Fixed in
0.1.4.2 *
Latest version
0.1.4.4
Severity
High · CVSS 7.5
Active installs
40,000+
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

CVSS vector (score by Wordfence): CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

What to do now

  1. Update InstaWP Connect to 0.1.4.2 or newer (the latest is 0.1.4.4): Dashboard → Updates, or Plugins → “update now”.
  2. If you cannot update right away, deactivate it until you can.
  3. Turn on auto-updates for it: Plugins → “Enable auto-updates” on its row.
  4. Not sure which version you run? Check your version against every known InstaWP Connect issue. With WP-CLI: wp plugin get instawp-connect --field=version.
  5. If you ran an affected version and something looks off (new admin users, spam pages, redirects), run the free scan below.

The advisory

The InstaWP Connect – 1-click WP Staging & Migration plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 0.1.4.1 This is due to the plugin registering its admin page via `add_management_page()` using a role name returned by `InstaWP_Setting::get_allowed_role()` as the required capability — which WordPress resolves as a real capability match for any user holding that role — combined with `generate_section_field()` rendering the master API key from the `instawp_api_options` option directly as the `value` attribute of a plain-text HTML input with no additional `manage_options` or equivalent capability check. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers with Subscriber-level access and above to read the plaintext master API key, use its SHA-256-derived secret as a bearer token accepted by the plugin's REST API `validate_api_request()`, and call `POST /wp-json/instawp-connect/v2/auto-login` to mint a 30-second single-use login URL that sets an administrator authentication cookie — fully escalating their privileges. Exploitation requires the site to be actively connected to InstaWP and an administrator to have added the attacker's role to the plugin's Sync Tab Access list (`instawp_sync_tab_roles`); notably, the settings tab suppression logic only hides the tab when `administrator` is absent from the list entirely, meaning a mixed configuration retaining administrator alongside a lower role still serves the full settings page — including the API key — to the lower-privileged user.

Description from the CVE record, published by Wordfence (the CVE Numbering Authority), via the NVD entry for CVE-2026-109400.

References

Related

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