CVE-2026-2022: 
WordPress vulnerability analysis and mitigation

CVE-2026-2022 is a Missing Authorization vulnerability in the Smart Forms plugin for WordPress affecting all versions up to and including 2.6.99. The flaw allows authenticated attackers with Subscriber-level access or above to retrieve donation campaign data — including campaign IDs and names — via the rednao_smart_forms_get_campaigns AJAX action, which lacks a proper capability check. It was published on February 14, 2026, and carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 4.3 (Medium) (Red Hat CVE).

The root cause is a missing authorization check (CWE-862) on the rednao_smart_forms_get_campaigns AJAX action registered by the Smart Forms WordPress plugin. Because no capability check is enforced before processing the request, any authenticated user — regardless of role — can invoke this action and retrieve sensitive campaign data. The attack vector is network-based, requires low privileges (a valid WordPress account at Subscriber level or above), and demands no user interaction or special conditions (Red Hat CVE).

Successful exploitation results in unauthorized disclosure of donation campaign data, including campaign IDs and names, which could be leveraged for reconnaissance or targeted social engineering. The confidentiality impact is limited in scope — no integrity or availability impact has been identified — and exploitation is confined to the affected WordPress instance without a direct path to lateral movement. The vulnerability does not enable code execution or privilege escalation on its own (Red Hat CVE).

No public proof-of-concept exploit code or evidence of in-the-wild exploitation has been reported as of the time of writing. The EPSS score is approximately 0.025%, indicating a low probability of exploitation in the near term. The vulnerability is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, and no threat actor attribution has been identified (Red Hat CVE).

1. Reconnaissance: Identify WordPress sites running the Smart Forms plugin at version 2.6.99 or earlier using tools such as WPScan or by inspecting plugin metadata in publicly accessible readme.txt files.
2. Obtain authenticated access: Register or obtain a Subscriber-level (or higher) WordPress account on the target site — the minimum privilege required to trigger the vulnerable AJAX action.
3. Craft the AJAX request: Send an authenticated HTTP POST request to the WordPress AJAX endpoint (/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php) with the action parameter set to rednao_smart_forms_get_campaigns and a valid WordPress nonce or session cookie.
4. Retrieve campaign data: Parse the JSON response, which returns donation campaign IDs and names without any authorization enforcement, completing the unauthorized data access (Red Hat CVE).

• Network: Repeated or anomalous POST requests to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with action=rednao_smart_forms_get_campaigns originating from low-privilege user sessions or unfamiliar IP addresses.
• Logs: WordPress access logs showing multiple requests to the AJAX endpoint from Subscriber-level accounts, particularly in rapid succession or from automated tools.
• Logs: Authentication logs showing newly registered Subscriber accounts followed immediately by AJAX action calls targeting the Smart Forms plugin.

Users should update the Smart Forms plugin to a version beyond 2.6.99 that includes a proper capability check on the rednao_smart_forms_get_campaigns AJAX action. Until a patched version is available or applied, site administrators can restrict new user registrations to reduce the risk of unauthorized Subscriber-level accounts being created. Additionally, web application firewalls (WAFs) can be configured to block or alert on POST requests to admin-ajax.php with the vulnerable action parameter from unexpected sources (Red Hat CVE).