AutomatorWP <= 6.0.4 — Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation to Insufficient Role Validation in Anonymous Automation 'Role' Option

Am I affected?

• Check your version: in wp-admin go to Plugins → Installed Plugins and read the version under AutomatorWP – No-Code Workflow Automation, Integration & Webhooks Plugin, now with AI.
• No admin access? Run a passive check of your site. It reads public files only.
• No account is needed to exploit this. Treat any exposed site on an affected version as at risk.

What to do

1. Update to version 6.0.5, or a newer patched version
2. Rotate administrator passwords and application secrets if the site ran a vulnerable version while publicly reachable.
3. Watch AutomatorWP – No-Code Workflow Automation, Integration & Webhooks Plugin, now with AI to get an email when the next vulnerability is published.

Advisory

Source description from Wordfence Intelligence, credited to John Ryan Albon.

The AutomatorWP – No-Code Workflow Automation, Integration & Webhooks Plugin, now with AI plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 6.0.4. This is due to missing privilege-ceiling validation in the `create_user()` function within the anonymous-user action (and equally in the Create User and Add/Change Role WordPress-integration actions), which verify only that the submitted role exists via `automatorwp_get_editable_roles()` without confirming the role falls at or below the acting context's privilege level — allowing attacker-controlled trigger tag data (e.g., a `{comment_author}` tag bound to the Role option) to supply any role, including `administrator`, unchallenged. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to create a new administrator-role account tied to an attacker-controlled email address, receiving the generated password via WordPress's new-user notification email and thereby gaining full administrative access to the site. Exploitation requires the site to have an anonymous automation configured with the Role option bound to a dynamic trigger tag such as `{comment_author}`, and is triggered when a site administrator performs the routine action of approving a comment — an action that provides no in-UI indication that it will mint a new privileged account from the comment author field.

Exploits & references

Proof-of-concept & detection

No public proof-of-concept or detection template is known for this vulnerability.

Advisories & patches

• Advisorywordfence.com

Related CVEs

Timeline

1. Nov 6, 2026

   CVE published

   Severity high, CVSS 7.5

2. Nov 13, 2026

   Record last updated