Vulnerability Database

361,925

Total vulnerabilities in the database

CVE-2026-14262

Improper Privilege Management

The Simple JWT Login – Allows you to use JWT on REST endpoints. plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Authentication Bypass to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 3.6.6 via the payload parameter. The vulnerability exists because AuthenticateService::generatePayload() only overwrites JWT payload keys whose names appear in the admin-configured jwt_payload list — leaving any attacker-supplied identity claims such as email, id, or username intact and signed into the JWT with the site's HS256 secret. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with subscriber-level access and above, to escalate their privileges to that of an Administrator by injecting a target administrator's email address into the payload parameter at the /wp-json/simple-jwt-login/v1/auth endpoint, then redeeming the resulting JWT at the /autologin endpoint to obtain a fully authenticated session as that administrator.

  • Published: Jul 11, 2026
  • Updated: Jul 12, 2026
  • CVE: CVE-2026-14262
  • Severity: High
  • Exploit:
  • CISA KEV:

CVSS v3:

  • Severity: High
  • Score: 8.8
  • AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CWEs:

Frequently Asked Questions

A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.

CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) estimates technical severity, but it doesn't automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, affected asset criticality, known exploitation (proof-of-concept or in-the-wild), and whether compensating controls exist. A "Medium" CVSS on an exposed, production system can be more urgent than a "Critical" on an isolated, non-production host.

A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. In practice, risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.

Recurring findings usually come from incomplete Asset Discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host. Unknown or unmanaged assets (often called Shadow IT) are a common reason the same issues resurface.

Use a simple, repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress using consistent metrics so remediation is steady, not reactive.

SynScan combines attack surface monitoring and continuous security auditing to keep your inventory current, flag high-impact vulnerabilities early, and help you turn raw findings into a practical remediation plan.