The Contest Gallery plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to an authentication bypass leading to admin account takeover in all versions up to, and including, 28.1.5. This is due to the email confirmation handler in users-registry-check-after-email-or-pin-confirmation.php using the user's email string in a WHERE ID = %s clause instead of the numeric user ID, combined with an unauthenticated key-based login endpoint in ajax-functions-frontend.php. When the non-default RegMailOptional=1 setting is enabled, an attacker can register with a crafted email starting with the target user ID (e.g., [email protected]), trigger the confirmation flow to overwrite the admin's user_activation_key via MySQL integer coercion, and then use the post_cg1l_login_user_by_key AJAX action to authenticate as the admin without any credentials. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to take over any WordPress administrator account and gain full site control.
CVE-2026-4021
Score 8.1 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: HIGH) published 2026-03-24. NVD baseline CVSS 8.1; sources differ by 0.0.
- High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
No vendor fix yet — apply a workaround or compensating control (WAF / firewall / segmentation) and watch for a patch.
- CVSS v3
- 8.1
- EG Score
- 8.1(medium)
- EG Risk
- 37(Track)EG Risk 37/100SSVC: Track
EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).
How it’s computedSeverity81% × 45%Exploitation0% × 40%Automatability0% × 15%Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence. - EPSS PROB
- 0%
- EPSS %ILE
- 36%
- KEV
- Not listed
Published
March 24, 2026
Last Modified
June 17, 2026
References (6)
- security@wordfencehttps://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/contest-gallery/tags/28.1.4/ajax/ajax-functions-frontend.php#L204
- security@wordfencehttps://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/contest-gallery/tags/28.1.4/v10/v10-admin/users/frontend/registry/users-registry-check-after-email-or-pin-confirmation.php#L153
- security@wordfencehttps://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/contest-gallery/trunk/ajax/ajax-functions-frontend.php#L204
- security@wordfencehttps://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/contest-gallery/trunk/v10/v10-admin/users/frontend/registry/users-registry-check-after-email-or-pin-confirmation.php#L153
- security@wordfencehttps://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?old_path=/contest-gallery/tags/28.1.5&new_path=/contest-gallery/tags/28.1.6
- security@wordfencehttps://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/f1b9725b-dee5-44ca-bb33-c6812fb76adc?source=cve
Weakness Classification(1)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 5× in last 7d / 30× in last 30d)
Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.
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Related CVEs(same CWE)
Same CWE
10 shownCWE-287
Frequently asked(5)
What is CVE-2026-4021?
When was CVE-2026-4021 disclosed?
Is CVE-2026-4021 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-4021?
How do I remediate CVE-2026-4021?
Dependency Blast Radius
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