# CVE-2026-13764: Masterstudy Education WordPress Theme privilege escalation in AJAX action

Source: https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-13764-the-masterstudy-education-wordpress-theme-theme-for-wordpress-is  
Publisher: Junglewise Threat Intelligence, https://junglewise.ai/threats  
Published: 2026-11-12. Updated: 2026-11-12  
License: CC BY 4.0 with a link back

CVE-2026-13764 · Severity: high · CVSS 8.8 · Published 2026-11-12

The Masterstudy Education WordPress Theme, used to build online learning platforms, contains a flaw that allows low-privilege users to become administrators. An authenticated attacker with a basic Subscriber account can exploit a missing security check on an AJAX action to gain full administrative control over the website, potentially leading to data theft, site takeover, or deployment of malicious content.

Vendors: [StylemixThemes](https://junglewise.ai/threats/vendors/stylemixthemes).

## Quick answers

**Is CVE-2026-13764 exploited in the wild?** No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-13764 being exploited in the wild.

**How severe is CVE-2026-13764?** High severity, with a CVSS score of 8.8, published 12 November 2026.

**Which products and versions are affected?** StylemixThemes Masterstudy - Education WordPress Theme up to and including 4.8.151.

**Is there a fix for CVE-2026-13764?** No fixed version is recorded yet. Check the vendor's advisory in the references below. If you run it, Junglewise drafts a mitigation that fits your setup and applies it once you approve, with senior security engineers behind it.

**How is CVE-2026-13764 attacked?** It is attacked over the network, in a web application.

**Am I affected by CVE-2026-13764?** Check whether you run StylemixThemes Masterstudy - Education WordPress Theme at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.

## Technical details

The vulnerability exists in the `masterstudy_ms_stm_set_discard_transient` AJAX action, which lacks authorization and nonce validation. An authenticated attacker can set the `stm_developer_access_token` transient and trigger the developer auto-login flow to obtain administrator session cookies. This requires authentication but no special preconditions beyond Subscriber-level access.

## Affected products

- StylemixThemes Masterstudy - Education WordPress Theme up to and including 4.8.151

## Timeline

- 2026-11-12: disclosed

## References

- [https://docs.stylemixthemes.com/masterstudy-theme-documentation/extra-materials/changelog](https://docs.stylemixthemes.com/masterstudy-theme-documentation/extra-materials/changelog)
- [https://themeforest.net/item/masterstudy-education-center-wordpress-theme/12170274](https://themeforest.net/item/masterstudy-education-center-wordpress-theme/12170274)