Vulnerability report

Active exploitation observed Confirmed confidence Not in CISA KEV

CVE-2026-19598

Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields Privilege Escalation

sc0ttkclark / Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields · 2.8 to <= 2.8.23.3

Watch CVE-2026-19598 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 9.8 · Critical
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Observed in sensors
EPSS
3.5%
First observed
16 Aug 2026
Last observed
15 Oct 2026

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2026-19598 is an unauthenticated vulnerability affecting sc0ttkclark Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields. The Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation...

Is it exploited?

Yes. Previdian sensors observed exploitation attempts with confirmed confidence. Also confirmed by third-party sources.

Who is affected?

sc0ttkclark / Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields 2.8 to <= 2.8.23.3.

What should we do?

Patch immediately, validate internet-facing exposure, and monitor for matching requests.

Overview

Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields Privilege Escalation

The Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation via Authorization Bypass in all versions up to, and including, 3.3.9. The vulnerability exists because the pods_admin AJAX router funnels every access check — including the method allowlist, nonce verification, login enforcement, and capability gate — through pods_error(), which under the JSON meta-box-loader compatibility path only writes failures to the PHP error log and returns false instead of terminating the request, rendering all guards ineffective.

This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to escalate their privileges to Administrator or overwrite the password of any user account, including the site owner's, enabling complete site takeover, or perform another administrator action.

sc0ttkclark Affected
Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields
Through 2.8.23.3 Through 2.9.19.3 Through 3.0.10.3 Through 3.1.4.1 Through 3.2.8.2 Through 3.3.9
Published
15 Aug 2026
Exploited Since
16 Aug 2026
Attack vector
Remote
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None

Tags

wordpress php edge nuclei_scanner

CVE References

Exploitation evidence

Why Previdian marks this CVE as exploited

Third-party attestation and first-party sensor observation are shown separately so teams can judge the evidence chain.

Exploited in the wild

Wordfence

Recorded 17 Aug 2026

Previdian independently recorded this as exploited after first seeing it in honeypot sensors.

Active exploitation observed

Previdian sensor

First observed 16 Aug 2026

Previdian first observed exploitation attempts targeting this vulnerability in our honeypot sensors.

Proof of concept available

GitHub

Recorded 18 Aug 2026

Public scanner or PoC coverage increases practical exploitability.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Per-source evidence links for KEV attestations are available through the Previdian Pro API.

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Source Added
Wordfence First 2026-08-17 08:14 UTC
Previdian Sensors 2026-08-22 08:27 UTC

Operational indicators for this CVE are listed under Detection.

Sensor telemetry

First-party evidence of exploitation activity

Previdian sensors recorded exploitation attempts targeting this vulnerability. The cards and chart show volume, unique attackers, and daily activity.

29

Attempts observed

17

Unique attacker IPs

13

Attacker countries

AE · AF · BG · CH · DE · FR · ID · IR · JP · SC · SG · VN · YE

11

Sensors observed

CVE-2026-19598 exploitation attempts over the last 62 days

Daily events observed by Previdian sensors

Updated 15 Oct 2026

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15 Aug 28 Aug 10 Sep 23 Sep 15 Oct

First observed 16 Aug 2026 · Last observed 15 Oct 2026

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Detection

Operational artifacts and observed signals

Make the evidence actionable in scanner, SOC, and edge-control workflows.

Observed signals

Request targets
User-Agents
Callback hosts
2
14
0

Request targets and User-Agents available in Pro. Callback host details available in Enterprise.

Virtual patch status

No Previdian virtual patch is currently available. Future rules ship for ModSecurity, Cloudflare, and AWS WAF.

Learn about virtual patches →

Attacker IP Indicators

Attacker IP indicators observed · available in Pro and Enterprise.

Sensor-derived attacker IP indicators are available to Pro and Enterprise accounts under Detection and through the Pro API.

Learn about Pro API access

Scanner Artifacts

Scanner and exploit-framework references linked to this CVE.

Scanner Reference Detected
Nuclei https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/main/http/cves/2026/CVE-2026-19598.yaml 25 Aug 2026

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

9.8 Critical

Potential damage if exploited. Separate from whether attackers are using it.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS

3.5%

Estimated chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Previdian's warning comes from evidence, not this score.

Weaknesses

Incorrect Authorization CWE-863

Potential Proof of Concepts

These PoCs are unverified and could contain malware. Use at your own risk.

0xCyp1337/CVE-2026-19598-

github · Created 2026-09-05 20:03:34 UTC · 0 stars · AI assessment 90%

DeadExpl0it/CVE-2026-19598-PoC

github · Created 2026-08-19 02:10:44 UTC · 0 stars · AI assessment 90%

Proof of Concept for CVE-2026-19598 affecting Pods <= 3.3.9.

ksotaria1337/CVE-2026-19598

github · Created 2026-08-18 15:16:05 UTC · 0 stars · AI assessment 90%

Pods <= 3.3.9 - Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation via pods_admin AJAX Router

nuclei · Created Unknown

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

  1. 04:31 UTC

    Nuclei template available

    Scanner coverage available

  2. 15:16 UTC

    Public PoC available

    Public proof-of-concept code published

  3. 08:14 UTC

    Added to Previdian KEV Feed

    High-confidence, third-party attested exploitation

  4. 16:22 UTC

    Indicators of compromise added (17)

    Indicators of compromise recorded

  5. 16:22 UTC

    Observed by Previdian sensors

    Evidence-backed exploitation signal

  6. 00:00 UTC

    Added to the Previdian watchlist

    Pro and Enterprise Watch users had 1 day of early warning before Previdian confirmed it as a KEV.

  7. 17:25 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  8. 06:52 UTC

    CVE ID reserved

    Identifier reserved by the CNA

Pro API

Automate this intelligence

Confidence, exploit status, sensor telemetry, PoCs, scanner integrations, mentions, and tags are available programmatically for VM, SOC, and CTI workflows.

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  • Evidence confidence and provenance
  • First-party sensor telemetry
  • PoC and scanner references
  • Affected versions and enrichment
  • Automation-ready JSON delivery

GET /api/v2/pro/kevs/CVE-2026-19598

Free JSON includes basic KEV fields 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2026-19598",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 9.8,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.03521,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": true
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 29, "sensors": 11 }
}