--- title: "CVE-2026-97644: Groundhogg CRM - Privilege Escalation" description: "Groundhogg CRM, Newsletters, and Marketing Automation plugin for WordPress <= 4.9 contains a privilege escalation caused by contact identity rebinding via the create_contact function in the v3 REST endpoint, letting authenticated attackers with Sales Representative-level access rebind contacts to arbitrary user IDs and gain administrator access, exploit requires attacker to have Sales Representative-level access." url: https://panop.io/threat-heartbeat/CVE-2026-97644/ --- # CVE-2026-97644 Groundhogg CRM - Privilege Escalation Groundhogg CRM, Newsletters, and Marketing Automation plugin for WordPress <= 4.9 contains a privilege escalation caused by contact identity rebinding via the create\_contact function in the v3 REST endpoint, letting authenticated attackers with Sales Representative-level access rebind contacts to arbitrary user IDs and gain administrator access, exploit requires attacker to have Sales Representative-level access. CVSS base score 8.8 /10 High CISA KEV Not listed Public exploit None known Authentication Required EPSS 0.50% chance of exploitation in 30 days [View the NVD record ↗](https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-97644) ## Details Type Privilege Escalation Impact Privilege Escalation CVSS vector CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Published 3 October 2026 Updated 15 October 2026 Weakness [CWE-269](https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/269.html) ## Vendor fix Update to the latest version beyond 4.9. Patching closes this CVE. It does not tell you which of your systems run the affected version, or what else is exposed alongside them. ## References - [https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-97644](https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-97644) - [https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3724910/groundhogg/trunk/api/v3/contacts-api.php](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3724910/groundhogg/trunk/api/v3/contacts-api.php) - [https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groundhogg/tags/4.8.3/api/v3/contacts-api.php#L373](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groundhogg/tags/4.8.3/api/v3/contacts-api.php#L373) - [https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groundhogg/tags/4.8.3/db/contacts.php#L205](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groundhogg/tags/4.8.3/db/contacts.php#L205) - [https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groundhogg/tags/4.8.3/includes/main-roles.php#L532](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groundhogg/tags/4.8.3/includes/main-roles.php#L532) - [https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groundhogg/tags/4.8.3/includes/rewrites.php#L460](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groundhogg/tags/4.8.3/includes/rewrites.php#L460) - [https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?reponame=&new=3724910%40groundhogg%2Ftags%2F4.9.1&old=3724058%40groundhogg%2Ftags%2F4.9](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?reponame=&new=3724910%40groundhogg%2Ftags%2F4.9.1&old=3724058%40groundhogg%2Ftags%2F4.9) - [https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/557306b7-7b66-465e-8d4d-ebae5b1577c9?source=cve](https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/557306b7-7b66-465e-8d4d-ebae5b1577c9?source=cve) - [https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groundhogg/tags/4.8.3/api/v4/emails-api.php#L571](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groundhogg/tags/4.8.3/api/v4/emails-api.php#L571) - [https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groundhogg/tags/4.8.3/includes/replacements.php#L2280](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/groundhogg/tags/4.8.3/includes/replacements.php#L2280) [← All CVEs](https://panop.io/threat-heartbeat/) ## What this record can't tell you - Whether you run the affected software, and where - Whether an attacker can actually reach and exploit it - The misconfigurations that never get a CVE number - What it would cost the business, ranked into what to fix first Panop answers these inside your environment, for this CVE and every other finding. [Book a demo](https://panop.io/demo)