---
id: CVE-2026-97644
title: >-
  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_…
summary: >-
  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_…
severity: high
cvss: 8.8
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H'
cwe:
  - CWE-269
vendor: trainingbusinesspros
product: 'Groundhogg — CRM, Newsletters, and Marketing Automation'
affected:
  - groundhogg_crm_newsletters_and_marketing_automation <= 4.9
published: '2026-10-03'
updated: '2026-10-03'
sourceUpdated: '2026-10-03T04:18:04.917'
source: NVD
sourceUrl: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-97644'
references:
  - url: >-
      https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groundhogg/tags/4.8.3/api/v3/contacts-api.php#L373
    label: security@wordfence.com
  - url: >-
      https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groundhogg/tags/4.8.3/api/v4/emails-api.php#L571
    label: security@wordfence.com
  - url: >-
      https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groundhogg/tags/4.8.3/db/contacts.php#L205
    label: security@wordfence.com
  - url: >-
      https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groundhogg/tags/4.8.3/includes/main-roles.php#L532
    label: security@wordfence.com
  - url: >-
      https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groundhogg/tags/4.8.3/includes/replacements.php#L2280
    label: security@wordfence.com
  - url: >-
      https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groundhogg/tags/4.8.3/includes/rewrites.php#L460
    label: security@wordfence.com
  - url: >-
      https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3724910/groundhogg/trunk/api/v3/contacts-api.php
    label: security@wordfence.com
  - url: >-
      https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?reponame=&new=3724910%40groundhogg%2Ftags%2F4.9.1&old=3724058%40groundhogg%2Ftags%2F4.9
    label: security@wordfence.com
  - url: >-
      https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/557306b7-7b66-465e-8d4d-ebae5b1577c9?source=cve
    label: security@wordfence.com
tags:
  - nvd
  - cve.org
ingestedAt: '2026-10-03T03:38:16.256Z'
---

## Overview

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.

## Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.