WP Data Access <= 5.5.89 — Incorrect Authorization to Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation via 'key' and 'val' Parameters on app/update, app/delete, app/insert

Am I affected?

• Check your version: in wp-admin go to Plugins → Installed Plugins and read the version under WP Data Access – App Builder for Tables, Forms, Dashboards, Charts & Maps.
• 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 5.5.90, or a newer patched version
2. Rotate administrator passwords and application secrets if the site ran a vulnerable version while publicly reachable.
3. Watch WP Data Access – App Builder for Tables, Forms, Dashboards, Charts & Maps to get an email when the next vulnerability is published.

Advisory

Source description from Wordfence Intelligence, credited to Kuba.

The WP Data Access – App Builder for Tables, Forms, Dashboards, Charts & Maps plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Incorrect Authorization leading to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 5.5.89 This is due to the plugin's write endpoints (`wpda/app/update`, `wpda/app/delete`, `wpda/app/insert`) passing the attacker-supplied `key` and `val` parameters directly to `$wpdadb->update`, `$wpdadb->delete`, and `$wpdadb->insert` without enforcing the container's row-filter (`defaultWhere`) or per-column allow-list (`isSelected`) restrictions that are correctly applied on the read endpoints. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to write to arbitrary rows and columns outside the configured restrictions — including overwriting the `user_pass` field of the WordPress administrator account in `wp_users` — and subsequently authenticate as the administrator, achieving full site takeover. Exploitation requires an administrator to have published a Data App that enables write transactions (update, delete, or insert) for Subscriber-level or anonymous users, which is an explicitly advertised use-case of the plugin. Exploitation by unauthenticated attackers requires that the administrator has published a Data App whose rest_api.authorization is 'anonymous' and whose container has transactions.update (or delete/insert) enabled. On a default installation, where that is not configured, the vulnerability requires attackers with subscriber-level access and above.

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 8.1

2. Nov 13, 2026

   Record last updated