# CVE-2026-120070: User Frontend <= 4.3.13 - Authenticated (Subscriber+) Privilege Escalation via post_content Parameter


- **Severity:** High 8.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 31 Oct 2026
- **Updated:** 6 Nov 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-558h-x4v5-3hwr

## What is CVE-2026-120070?

CVE-2026-120070 is a high-severity vulnerability in wedevs User Frontend – Membership, User Registration, User Profile, User Directory & Content Restriction with Frontend Post Submission, published on 31 Oct 2026. 

### Official description

The User Frontend – Membership, User Registration, User Profile, User Directory & Content Restriction with Frontend Post Submission plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 4.3.13 via the `post_content` parameter of the `submit_post()` function. The vulnerability exists because the protected-shortcode blocklist guard inspects the `sanitize_textarea_field()` copy of the submitted `post_content`, while the copy actually persisted to the database is processed through `wp_kses()`, whose `wp_kses_no_null()` step strips C0 control bytes — allowing an attacker to inject a single `\x01` byte inside the `[wpuf-registration]` tag name to defeat the `strpos()` blocklist check while the clean, functional shortcode is stored verbatim; `strip_shortcodes()` does not neutralize the stored shortcode either, because the Frontend container that registers it via `add_shortcode()` is only instantiated when `is_admin()` is false, and `admin-ajax` requests have `is_admin() === true`. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to inject a `[wpuf-registration role="editor"]` shortcode into a published post, causing a live Editor-role registration form to be rendered publicly on the frontend that any visitor — or the attacker themselves — can submit to mint a WordPress Editor account with an immediately active privileged session when the default `autologin_after_registration` setting is enabled.

Weakness: CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-120070?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-120070?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-120070 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-120070 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-120070 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-120070 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-120070 is a high-severity vulnerability in wedevs User Frontend – Membership, User Registration, User Profile, User Directory & Content Restriction with Frontend Post Submission, published on 31 Oct 2026. 
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-120070 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: wedevs User Frontend – Membership, User Registration, User Profile, User Directory & Content Restriction with Frontend Post Submission. 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-2026-120070/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-120070/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-120070
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-120070
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-120070

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-120070/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.