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critical advisory

Unauthenticated Account Takeover in TrueBooker WordPress Plugin

The TrueBooker plugin for WordPress up to version 1.2.6 is vulnerable to an unauthenticated account takeover via a flawed AJAX handler that allows attackers to modify user email addresses.

CVE search metadata

CVE search record: CVE-2026-18315. Severity: critical. CVSS: 9.8. KEV: no. Product: TrueBooker – Appointment Booking and Scheduler System (<= 1.2.6). Brief: Unauthenticated Account Takeover in TrueBooker WordPress Plugin. Brief link: https://feed.craftedsignal.io/briefs/2026-08-truebooker-auth-bypass/

The TrueBooker - Appointment Booking and Scheduler System plugin for WordPress contains a critical authorization bypass vulnerability (CVE-2026-18315) affecting all versions up to and including 1.2.6. The vulnerability resides within the 'admin_user_create_cus' AJAX handler, which fails to perform necessary authentication or capability checks.

Attackers can supply a 'truebooker_wp_user_id' parameter to the affected endpoint, which is then processed by 'wp_update_user' without verifying if the requestor has administrative privileges. By leveraging this, an unauthenticated actor can overwrite the email address associated with any user account in the WordPress database, including administrative accounts. Once the email address is updated to one controlled by the attacker, they can initiate the standard WordPress password reset process, intercept the recovery link, and gain full control over the compromised account. Defenders should identify any WordPress installations running this plugin and update to a patched version or disable the functionality immediately.

Impact

The vulnerability results in a total account takeover for any user, including site administrators. Successful exploitation leads to full unauthorized access to the WordPress environment, enabling the attacker to modify site content, inject malicious scripts, redirect traffic, or exfiltrate sensitive data. Given that this plugin is used for scheduling, the compromise could also lead to the exposure of customer personal information and booking logs. There are no observed victim counts at this time, but the exploit is trivial to execute remotely.

Recommendation

  • Update the TrueBooker plugin to the latest version immediately to remediate the vulnerable AJAX handler.
  • Audit WordPress user accounts for suspicious email address changes or recently created administrator accounts.
  • Deploy the Sigma rule below to detect attempts to reach the vulnerable AJAX handler from external sources.
  • Monitor web server logs for HTTP POST requests to 'admin-ajax.php' containing the 'admin_user_create_cus' action.

Immediate actions

Patch or disable TrueBooker plugin on all WordPress instances.

IT Operations 24h

Threat Hunt

Search web logs for POST requests to admin-ajax.php containing the action admin_user_create_cus.

T1190 high high confidence hunt now

Data: webserver logs

Mitigations

Update TrueBooker plugin to the latest version.

immediate IT Operations

CVE-2026-18315

Detection coverage 1

Detect CVE-2026-18315 Exploitation - Unauthenticated AJAX Action

critical

Detects potential exploitation of the admin_user_create_cus AJAX handler in the TrueBooker plugin.

sigma tactics: initial_access techniques: T1190 sources: webserver

Detection queries are available on the platform. Get full rules →