# CVE-2020-36157: Privilege escalation in n/a

> Unauthenticated attackers can escalate privileges by manipulating the role parameter during registration in the Ultimate Member WordPress plugin.

- **Severity:** Critical 10.0 (`CVSS:3.1/AC:L/AV:N/A:H/C:H/I:H/PR:N/S:C/UI:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 4 Jan 2021
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-4qr9-9cg9-9gvw

## What is CVE-2020-36157?

CVE-2020-36157 is a critical vulnerability in n/a, published on 4 Jan 2021. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

An issue was discovered in the Ultimate Member plugin before 2.1.12 for WordPress, aka Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation via User Roles. Due to the lack of filtering on the role parameter that could be supplied during the registration process, an attacker could supply the role parameter with a WordPress capability (or any custom Ultimate Member role) and effectively be granted those privileges.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-36157?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Ultimatemember Ultimate Member.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-36157?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-36157 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-36157 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-36157 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2020-36155](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-36155/): Privilege escalation in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2020-36156](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-36156/): Privilege escalation in n/a (critical 9.9)
- [CVE-2024-1071](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-1071/): SQL injection in Ultimate Member – User Profile, Registration, Login, Member Directory, Content Restriction & Membership Plugin (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2023-3460](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-3460/): Ultimate Member < 2.6.7 - Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2019-10270](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-10270/): Auth bypass in n/a (high 8.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-36157 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-36157 is a critical vulnerability in n/a, published on 4 Jan 2021. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-36157 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-36157/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-36157/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-36157
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-36157
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-36157

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-36157/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.