CVE-2026-9842

Backstage <= 1.4.2 - Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation via Permissive Demo Role Capabilities

HIGH
7.5
CVSS Score
Published: July 8, 2026 at 04:30 AM UTC
Updated: July 8, 2026 at 03:09 PM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorBackstage

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Severity
HIGH7.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.4%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

The Backstage - Customizer Demo Access plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 1.4.2. This is due to the plugin assigning the `manage_options` capability to the `backstage_customizer_user` demo role, which is more permissive than necessary for Customizer-only demo access. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to navigate beyond the Customizer and update arbitrary WordPress options such as `default_role`, leading to privilege escalation.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

Backstage· Pixelgradewordpress-plugin
60%
v ≤ 1.4.2

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet, and no fixed version or vendor advisory is recorded against it.

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitAutomatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

7.5HIGHWordfence
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusDEFERRED
CWE
CWE-269

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