Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessObtain subscriber-level WordPress account
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DeliveryEnumerate target learner user IDs via WordPress
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ExploitCraft AJAX request with victim's user ID to lesson handler
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ExecutionServer bypasses ownership check
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ImpactRead victim's lesson notes or mark lessons complete as victim
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A01:2025 - Broken Access Control
ASVS 5.0
V8 - Authorization Object-level authorization, IDOR prevention
|
| Exploitation Conditions | Exploitation requires the attacker to hold at minimum a subscriber-level authenticated WordPress account on the target site - unauthenticated attackers cannot exploit this flaw. The target site must have the Academy LMS plugin installed and active in a version prior to 3.8.1. The attacker must supply a valid user identifier belonging to another registered learner on the same WordPress instance, requiring either enumeration of WordPress user IDs (a commonly trivial task on default WordPress configurations) or prior knowledge of a target's account. The affected lesson AJAX handlers must be reachable over the network via the standard WordPress admin-ajax.php endpoint. Key limiting factors: the mandatory authenticated access requirement means sites that disable or tightly restrict subscriber registration have a substantially reduced attack surface; the impact is horizontally scoped (user-to-user, same privilege level) with no vertical escalation to administrator; and no system-level compromise, credential exposure, or remote code execution is possible through this vulnerability alone. |
| Impact | The CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N) scores 5.4 Medium, reflecting network accessibility with low attack complexity and low privilege requirements, but bounded confidentiality and integrity impact. The C:L and I:L ratings are appropriate: exposure is limited to lesson notes (not credentials, PII, or financial data) and integrity impact is confined to falsifying lesson completion state rather than achieving code execution or persistent system compromise. Critically, a publicly available exploit exists via WPScan, meaning automated or scripted abuse requires no independent exploit development. However, this vulnerability is not listed in CISA KEV, and no EPSS score was provided, so widespread in-the-wild exploitation is not confirmed. Real-world risk is elevated above the raw score in contexts where Academy LMS is used for compliance training, professional certifications, or auditable course completion records, where fraudulent completion marking could constitute regulatory or contractual fraud. Sites with open subscriber registration face a materially higher threat surface. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker registers a free subscriber-level account on a WordPress site running an unpatched Academy LMS installation - or leverages an existing account on a site with open registration. Using the publicly available WPScan exploit reference, the attacker sends crafted AJAX requests to the vulnerable lesson handlers, supplying the user ID of a targeted learner enrolled in the same LMS. The attacker reads the victim's private lesson notes and marks course modules as complete on the victim's behalf, potentially falsifying a compliance certification record or undermining a regulated training audit trail. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Jul 21, 2026
Academy LMS WordPress plugin versions prior to 3.8.1 exposes an Insecure Direct Object Reference (IDOR) flaw across multiple lesson AJAX handlers, allowing any subscriber-level authenticated user to read and overwrite other users' lesson notes and fraudulently mark course content as completed on their behalf. The vulnerability affects all Academy LMS installations running an unpatched version and is worsened by a publicly available exploit published via WPScan, though no active exploitation has been confirmed through CISA KEV. In environments where course completion carries compliance, certification, or audit significance, the integrity impact exceeds what the Medium CVSS score alone conveys.
RemediationAI
The primary and strongly recommended fix is to upgrade the Academy LMS WordPress plugin to version 3.8.1 or later, in which ownership verification has been introduced to the affected lesson AJAX handlers. Administrators should apply this update immediately via the WordPress admin dashboard under Plugins > Installed Plugins > Update, or by downloading the patched release directly. The vendor-confirmed fix is referenced at https://wpscan.com/vulnerability/56a5b91b-1e1a-429d-b9e9-a1a107183124/. If immediate patching is operationally blocked, a partial compensating control is to disable open WordPress subscriber registration, ensuring that only trusted, vetted users hold any authenticated account on the affected site; this raises the attacker's access prerequisite but does not close the vulnerability and risks legitimate user lockout. Deploying a Web Application Firewall rule to detect AJAX requests where the supplied user ID does not match the session's authenticated user ID may further reduce exposure but is not a reliable substitute for patching due to encoding and parameter variation.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in euvd
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Technical ContextAI · show details
The affected component is the Academy LMS WordPress plugin (CPE: cpe:2.3:a:unknown:academy_lms:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*), a Learning Management System plugin designed for WordPress-based e-learning platforms. The root cause is CWE-639 (Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key), an IDOR class vulnerability in which server-side AJAX handlers accept a user-supplied user identifier as input but perform no verification that the supplied identifier corresponds to the authenticated requesting user. This constitutes a broken object-level authorization (BOLA) failure - a category consistently ranked among the most prevalent API and web application security weaknesses. The attack surface is the WordPress AJAX endpoint (admin-ajax.php), which is reachable over the network by any authenticated user. Because WordPress subscriber is the lowest authenticated role, the privilege barrier to exploitation is minimal.
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
Network-reachable AJAX endpoint with no special conditions; PR:L because a subscriber account is the minimum prerequisite; impact bounded to lesson data confidentiality and integrity only, no availability loss.
Primary rating from Vendor (WPScan).
CVSS VectorVendor: WPScan
Lifecycle Timeline
4DescriptionCVE.org
The Academy LMS WordPress plugin before 3.8.1 does not verify ownership of a user-supplied user identifier in several of its lesson AJAX handlers, allowing authenticated users with subscriber-level access to read and modify other users' lesson notes and mark other users' lesson content as completed.
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.
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EUVD-2026-46163
GHSA-5p7v-x4q4-6428
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
VulDB
Exploit-DB