AutomatorWP <= 6.0.4 - Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation to Insufficient Role Validation in Anonymous Automation 'Role' Option

Overview

The AutomatorWP – No-Code Workflow Automation, Integration & Webhooks Plugin, now with AI plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 6.0.4. This is due to missing privilege-ceiling validation in the create_user() function within the anonymous-user action (and equally in the Create User and Add/Change Role WordPress-integration actions), which verify only that the submitted role exists via automatorwp_get_editable_roles() without confirming the role falls at or below the acting context's privilege level — allowing attacker-controlled trigger tag data (e.g., a {comment_author} tag bound to the Role option) to supply any role, including administrator, unchallenged. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to create a new administrator-role account tied to an attacker-controlled email address, receiving the generated password via WordPress's new-user notification email and thereby gaining full administrative access to the site. Exploitation requires the site to have an anonymous automation configured with the Role option bound to a dynamic trigger tag such as {comment_author}, and is triggered when a site administrator performs the routine action of approving a comment — an action that provides no in-UI indication that it will mint a new privileged account from the comment author field.

Affected

• automatorwp_no-code_workflow_automation_integration_webhooks_plugin_now_with_ai <= 6.0.4

Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.