# CVE-2026-19598: Pods <= 3.3.9 - Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation via Authorization Bypass to Admin Methods via 'pods_admin' AJAX Router

- Exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2026-08-15
- CVSS: 9.8 CRITICAL (v3.1)
- EPSS: 2.3% (83th percentile)
- CWE: CWE-863

The Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation via Authorization Bypass in all versions up to, and including, 3.3.9. The vulnerability exists because the pods_admin AJAX router funnels every access check — including the method allowlist, nonce verification, login enforcement, and capability gate — through pods_error(), which under the JSON meta-box-loader compatibility path only writes failures to the PHP error log and returns false instead of terminating the request, rendering all guards ineffective.  This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to escalate their privileges to Administrator or overwrite the password of any user account, including the site owner's, enabling complete site takeover, or perform another administrator action.

## Edge WAF coverage (claimed by vendors, not measured)

| Vendor | Status | First rule | Days after publication |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare | No public claim | — | — |
| AWS | No public claim | — | — |
| Microsoft Azure | No public claim | — | — |
| Google Cloud | No public claim | — | — |
| Fastly | Before feed history | — | — |
| F5 | Rule published | 2026-09-16 | 32 |
| Akamai | No public source | — | — |
| OWASP CRS | No public claim | — | — |

### F5

- 2026-09-16 · new · rule 200013213
  > Added: signature 200013213 "WordPress Pods Privilege Escalation" (Authentication/Authorization Attacks, risk High), systems: WordPress. References: CVE-2026-19598.
  Source: https://docs.cloud.f5.com/docs-v2/platform/changelogs/security-details-changelog

## Our test (measured)

- OWASP Core Rule Set 4.25.0, paranoia level 1, anomaly threshold 5, default CRS settings: passed (0 of 2 requests blocked), template CVE-2026-19598, 2026-11-02
- OWASP Core Rule Set 4.25.0, paranoia level 2, anomaly threshold 5, default CRS settings: passed (0 of 2 requests blocked), template CVE-2026-19598, 2026-11-02

"No public claim" means no vendor statement names this CVE; "Before feed history" means the CVE is older than the vendor feed. In both cases generic rules may still block it.

HTML: https://cve.vigilbase.com/cve/CVE-2026-19598 · JSON: https://cve.vigilbase.com/api/v1/cves/CVE-2026-19598