# Backup and Staging by WP Time Capsule <= 1.22.27 - Missing Authorization to Authenticated (Subscriber+) Staging-to-Live Push

- **ID:** WPSEC-2026-1102
- **Plugin:** Backup and Staging by WP Time Capsule (`wp-time-capsule`), https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-time-capsule/
- **Affected versions:** all versions before 1.22.28
- **Fixed in:** 1.22.28 (Update to 1.22.28 or later.)
- **Severity:** High 8.1 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H)
- **Weakness:** CWE-862
- **Usage among sites WPSec scans:** plugin Low, affected versions None seen (as of 2026-10-16)
- **Attack surface analysis:** https://attacksurface.wpsec.com/plugin/wp-time-capsule
- **Fix released:** 2026-10-14
- **Published:** 2026-10-16
- **URL:** https://wpsec.com/vuln/WPSEC-2026-1102/

## Description

The Backup and Staging by WP Time Capsule plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized modification of data due to a missing capability check on the to_live() function, reached through the 'wptc_copy_stage_to_live' AJAX action, in all versions up to, and including, 1.22.27. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above on a staging site created by the plugin, to start a staging-to-live push, which puts the live site into maintenance mode and overwrites its database tables and files with the staging copy. The staging site carries over the live site's user accounts, so a subscriber of the live site can log in to it.

## References

- https://wpsec.com/vuln/WPSEC-2026-1102/
- https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/wp-time-capsule/tags/1.22.28/
- https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-time-capsule/

Source: WPSec, https://wpsec.com/vuln/WPSEC-2026-1102/

License: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Free to use, share and adapt, also commercially, if you credit WPSec and link to this advisory.