CVE-2026-92975

The Groundhogg — CRM, Newsletters, and Marketing Automation plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation i

score 20HIGH 8.1

Summary

The Groundhogg — CRM, Newsletters, and Marketing Automation plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 4.8.3 via the `create_support_user()` function. This is due to the function identifying the support account solely by matching against publicly hardcoded constants — `user_login` `'groundhogg'` and email addresses `'[email protected]'` / `'[email protected]'` — where the `in_array()` email-equality check at line 238 is not a security boundary because any user fully controls their own email value. This makes it possible for an attacker with an account whose `user_login` is `'groundhogg'` and whose `user_email` matches one of the hardcoded support constants to have that account silently promoted to administrator — and additionally to super admin on multisite when the triggering administrator holds `manage_network_options` — resulting in full site takeover. Exploitation requires a two-actor flow: the attacker must first obtain or pre-plant an account with the hardcoded credentials (possible when open user registration is enabled or another account-creation path exists), after which a legitimate administrator must invoke the support-access feature via the `submit_ticket` or `process_send_support_access` entry points to trigger the promotion.

Published 2026-10-10 · first seen here 2026-10-10

Analysis & write-ups

No technical write-up from a research team yet. Contact Zero checks Unit 42, Google/Mandiant, Microsoft, Talos, CrowdStrike, Rapid7, watchTowr and others several times a day, plus NVD and CISA reference links.

Where it shows in your logs

Server or web application · Local privilege escalation medium confidence

What to look for

SYSTEM or root processes started from a non-admin user's session
Known exploit tool names or unsigned binaries run from user-writable folders (Temp, Downloads, /tmp)
The application's process (w3wp.exe, java, tomcat, node, php-fpm, httpd, python) starting shells or LOLBins (cmd, powershell, sh, bash, curl, wget, certutil)
New script files in web roots (.jsp, .aspx, .php): a web shell
Requests to unusual URLs on the application from internet IPs right before any of the above
Outbound connections from the server to new external IPs

Data sources

Web server and WAF logs · ATT&CK DS0015 Application Log Content

Sentinel: W3CIISLogAppServiceHTTPLogsAzureDiagnostics (Application Gateway / Front Door WAF)_Im_WebSession
Splunk: Web.Webms:iis:autoaccess_combinedWAF / proxy sourcetypes
CrowdStrike: Falcon Next-Gen SIEM: third-party web / WAF / proxy logs

Process creation · ATT&CK DS0009 Process Creation

Sentinel: DeviceProcessEventsSecurityEvent (4688)Sysmon Event ID 1_Im_ProcessCreate
Splunk: Endpoint.ProcessesXmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/OperationalWinEventLog:Security (4688)
CrowdStrike: ProcessRollup2SyntheticProcessRollup2

File creation · ATT&CK DS0022 File Creation

Sentinel: DeviceFileEventsSysmon Event ID 11_Im_FileEvent
Splunk: Endpoint.FilesystemSysmon Event ID 11
CrowdStrike: NewExecutableWrittenNewScriptWritten*FileWritten events

Network connections · ATT&CK DS0029 Network Connection Creation / Network Traffic Flow

Sentinel: DeviceNetworkEventsCommonSecurityLog (firewall)_Im_NetworkSession
Splunk: Network_Traffic.All_TrafficFirewall sourcetypes (pan:traffic, fortigate_traffic, cisco:asa)
CrowdStrike: NetworkConnectIP4NetworkReceiveAcceptIP4NetworkConnectIP6

Account and group changes · ATT&CK DS0002 User Account Creation / Modification

Sentinel: SecurityEvent (4720, 4728, 4732, 4756)AuditLogsIdentityDirectoryEvents
Splunk: Change.All_Changes (Account_Management)WinEventLog:Security (4720, 4732)
CrowdStrike: UserAccountCreatedUserAccountAddedToGroup