Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessObtain Contributor-level account
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DeliveryHarvest wpsp-el-editor nonce from Elementor modal
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ExploitReplay nonce in wpsp_el_editor_form AJAX with target post_id
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ExecutionChange post status/publish date without authorization
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ImpactUnpublish or reschedule administrator posts
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A01:2025 - Broken Access Control
ASVS 5.0
V8 - Authorization Authorization checks on every request
MITRE ATT&CK
1 technique across 1 tactic: Privilege Escalation The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Exploitation Conditions | Requires an authenticated Contributor-level account (PR:L) on a site running SchedulePress / WP Scheduled Posts before 5.3.5, plus a valid wpsp-el-editor nonce that the attacker obtains from the Elementor editor modal they can legitimately open. The vulnerable path is the wpsp_el_editor_form AJAX action (and related PostPanel REST routes), which checked only edit_post and not publish_post. Limiting factors: exploitation is impossible without a provisioned low-privilege account, so closed single-author sites are not realistically at risk; impact is bounded to post status/schedule manipulation of other users' content with no data disclosure, and the nonce dependency means the attacker needs editor-modal access rather than a fully pre-authentication path. |
| Impact | This is a genuine but moderate-severity access-control flaw, not a top-tier emergency. The CVSS 4.0 vector (AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:L) and 5.3 Medium score are internally consistent with the description: exploitation is network-reachable and low-complexity, but requires an authenticated Contributor-level account (PR:L), which is the single biggest limiting factor. Impact is confined to integrity and availability of post publishing state (VI:L/VA:L) with no confidentiality exposure (VC:N) - an attacker cannot read protected data, only unpublish/reschedule others' posts or publish others' drafts. No EPSS score, CISA KEV listing, or public POC is present in the provided data, so there is no public exploit identified at time of analysis and no evidence of active exploitation; this points to a low real-world exploitation likelihood absent a site where untrusted users hold Contributor accounts. SSVC-style framing: exploitation=none observed, automatable=yes in principle (single authenticated AJAX call), technical impact=partial. Net: prioritize patching on multi-author/membership sites that provision Contributor accounts to untrusted users; it is lower urgency on single-author or closed-editorial sites. One caveat: no EPSS/KEV/POC data was supplied, so exploitation probability is inferred from the vector and description rather than measured - treat the 'low likelihood' judgment as an inference, not a confirmed signal. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | On a multi-author WordPress site, a user holding only a Contributor account opens the Elementor editor modal to harvest the valid wpsp-el-editor nonce, then replays it in a crafted wpsp_el_editor_form AJAX request specifying an administrator's post ID. The missing authorization check lets them unpublish or reschedule that administrator post, or flip another user's pending/draft post to published. No public exploit code is identified at time of analysis, but the attack is trivial to script once a Contributor account is held. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Oct 21, 2026
Missing authorization in the SchedulePress (WP Scheduled Posts) WordPress plugin before 5.3.5 allows authenticated Contributor-level users to alter the status and publish date of posts they do not own, including unpublishing or rescheduling administrator content and pushing other users' pending or draft posts live. The root cause is that the wpsp_el_editor_form AJAX handler and the related PostPanel REST routes validated only the edit_post capability - which a Contributor already holds for their own drafts - instead of publish_post, and the wpsp-el-editor nonce is not bound to a specific post, so it can be reused against any post ID. Exploitation requires a provisioned low-privilege account and access to the Elementor editor modal from which the nonce is harvested; no public exploit code has been identified at time of analysis and the issue is not listed in CISA KEV, with impact bounded to integrity/availability of post scheduling and no data disclosure. The vendor has released 5.3.5 to address the flaw.
RemediationAI
Upgrade the SchedulePress / WP Scheduled Posts plugin to version 5.3.5 or later; the vendor-released fix is commit 0e7af0fcbf0851687c34db2997117032978dbe06 (https://github.com/WPDevelopers/wp-scheduled-posts/commit/0e7af0fcbf0851687c34db2997117032978dbe06), which adds publish_post capability checks to the wpsp_el_editor_form AJAX handler, the PostPanel REST routes, the calendar endpoints, and the early-publish path, and restricts the modal to the 'future' and 'publish' statuses. Until patched, reduce exposure by auditing and, where feasible, temporarily removing Contributor accounts from untrusted users or downgrading them, since exploitation requires a provisioned low-privilege login and a harvestable wpsp-el-editor nonce from the Elementor editor modal; disabling the plugin's Elementor/post-panel integration stops the attack path but removes the editorial calendar's modal scheduling workflow. Because the nonce is not tied to a specific post, treat it as no defense at all and do not rely on nonce secrecy. Finally, review recent post status and publish-date changes across the calendar for signs of tampering (unpublished or rescheduled administrator posts, drafts published by other users), and consult the VulnCheck advisory at https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/schedulepress-before-5.3.5-missing-authorization-via-wpsp-el-editor-form-ajax-action for the vendor's guidance.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in euvd
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
SchedulePress is a WordPress editorial-calendar and auto-scheduling plugin (wp-scheduled-posts, vendor WPDeveloper) that integrates with the block editor and Elementor to manage future/publish transitions. The vulnerability class is CWE-862 Missing Authorization: the plugin registered its AJAX action wpsp_el_editor_form (handled in includes/Admin.php, wpsp_el_tab_action) and its REST routes in includes/API/PostPanel.php with a permission callback that only asserted edit_post on the supplied post ID. In WordPress's capability model that check is insufficient for state-changing operations that make a post publicly visible - Contributors can edit their own drafts but lack publish_post - so the proper gate is a conjunction of edit_post and publish_post. Compounding the flaw, the wpsp-el-editor nonce is not scoped to a post, so a nonce legitimately obtained by opening the Elementor editor modal can be replayed against arbitrary post IDs, and the handler additionally accepted arbitrary values for post_status rather than limiting them to 'future'/'publish'. The vendor fix (commit 0e7af0fcbf0851687c34db2997117032978dbe06) introduces a publish_permission_check() callback on the PostPanel routes, adds publish-capability enforcement inside save_settings (including the Pro hand-off via schedulepress_after_free_settings_save), adds explicit current_user_can('publish_post') checks in wpsp_el_tab_action and in Calendar::validate_user_post_access (with a whitelist of draft-only operation types), constrains the accepted statuses, and gates the early-publish path in wpscp_submit_box_future_post() in includes/functions.php.
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Severity by source
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
PR:L because a valid Contributor account is required; C:N as no data is read, I:L/A:L for unauthorized post status/schedule changes; scope unchanged within WordPress.
Primary rating from Vendor (VulnCheck).
CVSS VectorVendor: VulnCheck
DescriptionCVE.org
SchedulePress before 5.3.5 contains a missing authorization vulnerability that allows authenticated Contributor-level users to change any post's status and publish date via the wpsp_el_editor_form AJAX action. Attackers can reuse the wpsp-el-editor nonce from the Elementor modal to unpublish or reschedule administrator posts, or publish other users' pending or draft posts.
Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Authentication bypass attacks exploit flaws in the verification mechanisms that control access to systems and applications.
EUVD-2026-107232
GHSA-wjcc-2q8h-xjfx
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
Exploit-DB