High severity · published Sep 15, 2026
CVE-2026-14805
Consulting - Business, Finance WordPress Theme <= 6.7.16 - Authenticated (Subscriber+) Privilege Escalation via AJAX
8.8
CVSS
0.4%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
The Consulting theme for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in versions up to, and including, 6.7.16. This is due to a combination of two flaws: (1) the masterstudy_ms_stm_set_discard_transient AJAX endpoint in admin/admin-notices/classes/STMHandler.php accepts an arbitrary transient key without capability checks or nonce validation, and (2) the developer access login mechanism in admin/classes/stm-theme-support.php authenticates users based on a transient value without proper cryptographic validation when in legacy string mode. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with subscriber-level access and above, to set the stm_developer_access_token transient to a known value (1), then authenticate as any existing user including administrators by visiting a specially crafted URL, thereby achieving full privilege escalation to administrator.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.4% · higher than 38% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
CB
Consulting - Business, Finance WordPress Theme · StylemixThemes
through 6.7.16 · source: vendor
Affected product
CB
Consulting - Business, Finance WordPress Theme
StylemixThemes
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-14805
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-14805
themeforest.net
https://themeforest.net/item/consulting-business-finance-wordpress-theme/14740561#item-description__changelog
www.wordfence.com
https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/bc8dffc2-ae5b-4482-9eba-adc439a52c26?source=cve
