CVE-2026-13764: Masterstudy - Education WordPress Theme <= 4.8.151 - Missing Authorization to Authenticated (Subscriber+) Privilege Escalation
The Masterstudy - Education WordPress Theme theme for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 4.8.151. This is due to missing authorization and nonce validation on the masterstudymsstmsetdiscardtransient AJAX action. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to elevate their privileges to Administrator by setting the stmdeveloperaccesstoken transient and using the developer access auto-login flow to obtain administrator session cookies.
Event History
Frequently Asked Questions
Who can exploit this issue?
An attacker needs an authenticated WordPress account with Subscriber-level access or higher. No user interaction is required, and the attack can be performed remotely over the network.
What access can an attacker gain?
A successful attacker can elevate their account to Administrator by setting the stm_developer_access_token transient and using the developer access auto-login flow to obtain administrator session cookies. This can result in full confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact.
Which installations are affected?
Masterstudy - Education WordPress Theme versions up to and including 4.8.151 are affected. The issue is in the masterstudy_ms_stm_set_discard_transient AJAX action, which lacks authorization and nonce validation.