Wordpress - Set Featured Image Front Frontend Form
you can do that by running the function
set_post_thumbnail( $my_post_id, $thumbnail_id );
remember, you have to process and insert the image into the library first:
$uploaddir = wp_upload_dir();
$file = $_FILES[ ... whatever you have in your POST data ... ];
$uploadfile = $uploaddir['path'] . '/' . basename( $file );
move_uploaded_file( $file , $uploadfile );
$filename = basename( $uploadfile );
$wp_filetype = wp_check_filetype(basename($filename), null );
$attachment = array(
'post_mime_type' => $wp_filetype['type'],
'post_title' => preg_replace('/\.[^.]+$/', '', $filename),
'post_content' => '',
'post_status' => 'inherit',
'menu_order' => $_i + 1000
);
$attach_id = wp_insert_attachment( $attachment, $uploadfile );
did not test the script - it is adapted from a version i created. maybe you want to change the filename and stuff like that, but all in all it works this way :)