CVE-2026-76780: BeyondSEO privilege escalation vulnerability
medium 6.3 published 2026-10-28 · updated 2026-10-29
- Affected versions
- 1.3.6 and older
- Fixed in
- 1.3.7 *
- Latest version
- 1.3.10
- Severity
- Medium · CVSS 6.3
- 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: A logged-in account with Contributor-level access or higher.
CVSS vector (score by Wordfence): CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
What to do now
- Update BeyondSEO to 1.3.7 or newer (the latest is 1.3.10): 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 BeyondSEO issue.
With WP-CLI:
wp plugin get beyondseo --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 Beyondseo plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized access in versions up to, and including, 1.3.6. This is due to the plugin permanently granting the 'rankingcoach_write_redirectManager' (and sibling rankingcoach_write_* module capabilities) to the Contributor role via BaseModule::defineCapabilities(), whose default role list includes 'contributor', combined with the module's REST endpoints (registered through BaseSubmoduleApi::registerRouteCreate/registerRouteEdit/registerRouteDelete) authorizing state-changing requests solely through checkPermissionsPost(), which only calls current_user_can('rankingcoach_write_<module>') and performs no admin capability, ownership, or additional nonce check inside the callback. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Contributor-level access and above, to elevate their privileges to effectively that of an Administrator with respect to site-wide redirect management — creating, updating, or deleting 301/302 redirects that RedirectManagerHooks::handleRedirects() executes for every frontend visitor on template_redirect, allowing hijacking of arbitrary paths (including /checkout, /wp-login.
References
- NVD CVE-2026-76780 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/beyondseo (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.