CVE-2026-78570 Overview
The Total Donations plugin for WordPress contains a privilege escalation vulnerability affecting all versions up to and including 2.0.5. Unauthenticated attackers can elevate their privileges to administrator without any user interaction or prior access. The flaw is categorized under CWE-269: Improper Privilege Management and impacts the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of affected WordPress sites. Remote exploitation over the network requires no authentication, making any site running the vulnerable plugin an accessible target.
Critical Impact
Unauthenticated remote attackers can gain full administrator access to WordPress sites running Total Donations plugin versions 2.0.5 and earlier, enabling complete site compromise.
Affected Products
- Total Donations plugin for WordPress — all versions through 2.0.5
- WordPress sites with the plugin installed and activated
- Any hosting environment serving the vulnerable plugin
Discovery Timeline
- 2026-08-25 - CVE-2026-78570 published to NVD
- 2026-08-27 - Last updated in NVD database
Technical Details for CVE-2026-78570
Vulnerability Analysis
The Total Donations plugin fails to enforce proper privilege management on functionality that can modify user roles or account attributes. An unauthenticated attacker can invoke the affected functionality directly over HTTP and assign administrative privileges to an attacker-controlled account. Successful exploitation grants full administrative control over the WordPress instance, including the ability to install plugins, modify themes, execute arbitrary PHP through the admin interface, and access all stored data.
The vulnerability aligns with the CWE-269 weakness class, where the application does not correctly restrict which users may perform sensitive account operations. Because the plugin exposes this behavior without an authentication check, standard WordPress role separation is bypassed entirely.
Root Cause
The plugin exposes one or more endpoints that modify user privileges without validating the caller's identity or capabilities. Refer to the Wordfence Vulnerability Analysis and the Patchstack Vulnerability Report for further technical detail on the affected code paths.
Attack Vector
Exploitation occurs over the network against publicly reachable WordPress installations. The attacker sends crafted HTTP requests to the plugin's vulnerable endpoint to promote an existing or newly created account to the administrator role. No credentials, tokens, or user interaction are required. Once administrator access is obtained, the attacker can escalate to arbitrary PHP execution through standard WordPress admin functionality such as plugin or theme uploads.
No public proof-of-concept exploit code is currently referenced in the NVD entry for CVE-2026-78570.
Detection Methods for CVE-2026-78570
Indicators of Compromise
- Unexpected new user accounts assigned the administrator role, especially with generic or random usernames
- Existing low-privilege accounts whose wp_capabilities value has been changed to administrator
- HTTP POST requests to Total Donations plugin endpoints from unauthenticated sessions followed by administrative activity
- Plugin or theme installations shortly after suspicious requests to /wp-content/plugins/totaldonations/
Detection Strategies
- Audit the wp_users and wp_usermeta tables for accounts created or modified outside normal provisioning workflows
- Review web server access logs for requests targeting Total Donations plugin paths from unauthenticated clients
- Correlate role changes in WordPress with the source IP addresses that issued them to detect unauthenticated privilege changes
Monitoring Recommendations
- Enable WordPress activity logging to capture user role changes and administrator logins
- Alert on any creation of administrator accounts and require secondary verification
- Monitor outbound connections from the web server for signs of post-compromise tooling such as webshells or reverse shells
How to Mitigate CVE-2026-78570
Immediate Actions Required
- Deactivate and remove the Total Donations plugin if a patched version is not available in your environment
- Enumerate all WordPress users and remove or demote any unrecognized administrator accounts
- Rotate credentials for all administrator accounts and force password resets on all users
- Review recently installed plugins, themes, and modified files for attacker-planted backdoors
Patch Information
No fixed version is identified in the NVD data at the time of publication. Consult the Patchstack Vulnerability Report and the Wordfence Vulnerability Analysis for current vendor guidance and patch availability. Until a verified fix is confirmed, treat the plugin as unsafe to run.
Workarounds
- Remove the plugin directory from the WordPress installation to eliminate exposure
- Block requests to Total Donations plugin paths at the web application firewall (WAF) level
- Restrict access to /wp-admin/ and /wp-login.php by IP allowlist where feasible
- Deploy a virtual patch through your WAF to reject unauthenticated calls to plugin endpoints that modify user roles
# Example: block requests to the vulnerable plugin path at the web server layer (nginx)
location ~* /wp-content/plugins/totaldonations/ {
deny all;
return 403;
}
Disclaimer: This content was generated using AI. While we strive for accuracy, please verify critical information with official sources.
