🔐 CVE Alert

CVE-2026-9842

HIGH 7.5

Backstage <= 1.4.2 - Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation via Permissive Demo Role Capabilities

CVSS Score
7.5
EPSS Score
0.0%
EPSS Percentile
0th

The Backstage - Customizer Demo Access plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 1.4.2. This is due to the plugin assigning the `manage_options` capability to the `backstage_customizer_user` demo role, which is more permissive than necessary for Customizer-only demo access. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to navigate beyond the Customizer and update arbitrary WordPress options such as `default_role`, leading to privilege escalation.

CWE CWE-269
Vendor pixelgrade
Product backstage – customizer demo access
Published Jul 8, 2026
Last Updated Jul 8, 2026
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CVSS v3 Breakdown

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
Attack Vector
Attack Complexity
Privileges Required
User Interaction
Scope
Confidentiality
Integrity
Availability

Affected Versions

pixelgrade / Backstage – Customizer Demo Access
0 ≤ 1.4.2

References

NVD ↗ CVE.org ↗ EPSS Data ↗
wordfence.com: https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/5bcf1f02-0946-4e96-a81b-00c7c48d64b3?source=cve plugins.trac.wordpress.org: https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/backstage/tags/1.4.2/includes/class-Backstage.php#L154 plugins.trac.wordpress.org: https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/backstage/tags/1.4.2/includes/class-Backstage.php#L348

Credits

Nabil Irawan